YouTubes Antiblick is illegal in the EU

Alexander Hanff (@thatprivacyguy@eupolicy.social)

2y ago

Youtube's Anti-adblock is illegal in the EU

16 comments

Saw this pic floating around.
- actual source of "this pic" https://eupolicy.social/@thatprivacyguy/111261130799704016
  
  Thanks!
  The picture was shared on other social media sites, I did not see it mentioned in Lemmy or similar.
- Their obvious solution to this is make you consent to it or you can’t use YouTube.
  
  which isn't GDPR-compliant. you can't force people to accept tracking if the service doesn't require it to work.
I would recommend people read the IAB ad blocker detection guide for Europe which provides a good summary of what is possible. It lays out the that depending on how the detection is done it might be defensible to rely on ToS, and to remove all risk, implement a consent banner, wall, or both.
Which is to say, even if it was ruled that YouTube can't rely on ToS, which I don't think is a sure thing, they would just have a consent wall like for cookies.
Unfortunately it did not stop them from trying over here
You can send your own complaint here:
https://forms.dataprotection.ie/contact
I'm not in a position to look into it right now, but is there a part of the EULA that gives consent to detect ad blockers, and would that be good enough for the law referenced?
- Probably not.
  A contract term that is illegal under local laws cannot be enforced.
  If the process they are using to detect adblockers breaches EU laws, they cannot use the EULA to allow them to break the law.
- No, consent can't be hidden in tos
antiblick
We in South Africa rn?

16 comments