Greetings y’all. I’ve been using ways to circumvent YouTube ads for years now. I’d much rather donate to creators directly instead of using Google as a middle man, needing YouTube Premium. If even pay for premium for just a add free version, if the price wouldn’t be so outrageous. I’ve So far used adblockers, Vanced and then Revanced.

Since the recent developments in this matter, I’ve setup Tubearchivist, a self hosted solution to download YouTube videos for later consumption. It mostly works great, with a few minor things that bother me but I highly recommend it. ReVanced also still works, but nobody knows for how long.

The question now is, if I should use a VPN to obscure my identity to Google. I don’t know if I’m being paranoid here but I wouldn’t put it past Google to block my account, if they see YouTube traffic for my IP address and no served ads. Revanced even uses my main Google account, so not that far fetched.

So far, or at least to my knowledge, Google has never done this but I think they just might in the future. So I’m planning on putting tubearchivist behind a VPN via gluetun.

What do you think? I’m eager to hear your opinions on this.

I can also add my docker compose, if there’s interest and when I’m back on my PC.

  • Pete90@feddit.deOPEnglish
    21·
    1 year ago

    I know this is a possibility, but also a risk. The land where you purchased youtube premium doesn’t match your home address so Google notice. Do you use your primary account for this? Do you need a foreign credit card?

    • weedwhacking@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      1 year ago

      I use my home countries credit card no problem! You may have to manually approve the international charge depending on your bank. Been doing it for over 5 years now, no issues yet. I use my primary account, although I don’t use any google services other than YT so I don’t care if my account gets suspended.

      • propaganja@lemmy.mlEnglish
        11·
        1 year ago

        Yeah, there’s a big difference between “random country” and “home country”.

        I experimented with this some time ago and failed because I didn’t have a credit card from the foreign country to pay with. I’m sure this can be circumvented with some effort, but it’s not trivial.