Well fuck. It never crossed my mind that YouTube would do this since I don’t view it the same as other traditional streaming services. This will really suck for my friends who I’ve happily let mooch off my plan for years.
YouTube is now flagging accounts on Premium family plans that aren't in the same household
Submitted 2 weeks ago by ardi60@reddthat.com to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.androidpolice.com/youtubes-latest-crackdown-may-affect-your-family-plan/
Comments
kinkles@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Dyskolos@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
You pay a scammer to scam you and wonder why you get scammed? Their course was clear the moment they ditched their slogan “don’t be evil”. And here we are, again.
yabai@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Amazon is doing the exact same thing. Just got an email today that they’re shutting down the family Prime sharing thing. Had that for ten years now.
mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de 2 weeks ago
I really think corporations are starting to overplay their hands here. People don’t need Prime as much as Amazon thinks they do, people don’t need YouTube as much as Google thinks they do, and so on. Especially in the case of YT, yeah, turns out it’s easy to compete when your service is free. But once it gets freemium enough, things like Peertube start to take a place on the optimal frontier. Right now Peertube only competes with YouTube if you’re sensitive to the dimension of a service being centralized or not, most people don’t give a shit about that. But the dimension of cost and ads? Enshittify YouTube too much and suddenly Peertube has its place for anyone who cares about money or time (i.e everyone).
And Prime? Don’t think people won’t start just going to stores again, or buying directly from producers. At least if I go to an actual website to buy my stuff I don’t need to worry about getting ripped off by some drop-ship fake brand garbage.
People love their little conveniences and will try to hang on to them, sure…but I think this could really start to backfire if they push it much further.
unphazed@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Shipping is still free if orders are over $35. Add to cart, order when you have enough. Their 2 day shipping has become bs these days anyhow. “It’s 2 days from when the order is processed.” I bought the shit, money came out of my account, it’s processed. I have made a legal exchange with the expectation that your mutli billion company can place an order and box shit near immediately from 50+ warehouses. I order in the morning, and you’re telling me it took you 2 days to get that order with a preprinted label onto a truck?
magguzu@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
I think it’s important to keep expectations realistic though…
in the case of Youtube there are very few groups/companies/whatever that could keep up with that kind of bandwidth. Federation helps here but it’s still a pretty niche thing for 99% of people who don’t know/care and just want their social media/forum/video site to work.
socsa@piefed.social 2 weeks ago
No they are keeping the family plan but shutting down the non household sharing. Now it is "one additional adult and four kids."
weariedfae@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
What?!
yabai@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yeah, sucks. Give this a read.
cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 6 days ago
legally pay for youtube music.
legally add family to family account.
legally share it with them even though they're not in the house
youtube: nope not gonna work for me; account deleted
use yt-dlp to rip songs
save to folder
add folder to jellyfin
share jellyfin with family
youtube: suddenly i can't see
phoenixz@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
One would wonder how they’d know that but then again, one knows.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Yup, it’s always tracking…
SaltySalamander@fedia.io 2 weeks ago
Pretty easy to know, in fact. Same way Netflix, Disney, or HBO knows. Same account, accessed simultaneously from two distinct IP addresses. Not really rocket surgery.
Sunshine@piefed.ca 2 weeks ago
More people need to use Peertube.
rumba@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Peertube needs monetization and the ability for people peer without self-hosting. A torrent client of sorts.
The product, in it’s current form cannot replace Youtube. Youtube gives you traffic, a free place to host even your crappiest footage, and money if enough people start watching it regularly.
Peertube isn’t free, it’s just someone else footing the bill, which breaks under load.
Electricd@lemmybefree.net 2 weeks ago
Seeing the number of dead torrents, it’s highly likely that many videos will quickly die as well
But it would be nice to have a way to seed.
Problem with all federated platforms: which one should people pick? Most instances don’t federate with others
fodor@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
It’s always nice when the garbage takes itself out. And if you’re inconvenienced, I feel for you, but the writing has been on the wall for years. They will keep trying to suck more money out of you every way they can until you cancel your subscription, and because that’s going to happen in the end, why not cancel it today.
Blackmist@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
“There aren’t enough seeds for these AI training data torrents we’ve been downloading. Anybody got any ideas?”
ronigami@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Meanwhile I installed the User Agent Switcher extension for firefox to change my user agent every 30 seconds to something random to avoid tracking. A few websites don’t accept it. I just quit those websites and find a non-billionaire-owned alternative like Kagi or Fastmail. So far it’s working out well.
blurb@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
That likely makes you easier to track. User agents don’t really matter all that much if an advanced tracking script is used. When your IP address is the same, your browser engine is the same, your canvas data stays the same, your window size stays the same, your operating system stays the same, then they will just know that you also use an extension that makes your user agent not reflect your system and track you based on that too.
Use Mullvad Browser without changing anything important (change the default search engine at most) and preferably use a proper VPN to actually avoid tracking during regular internet usage. Or use LibreWolf to at least fool naive scripts.
I would suggest reading this too:
github.com/…/3.3-Overrides-[To-RFP-or-Not]ronigami@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
How is that easier? That’s just only very slightly harder, not easier. Most sites will not have such sophisticated logic. And anyway, the purpose is to suss out which websites do this kind of tracking and avoid them entirely, not to thwart the tracking.
Simulation6@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
YT forces me to login if I am using a VPN these days, if I use Firefox or Safari. Brave avoids this. I will have to try Mullvad.
HalfSalesman@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yo, I’m on my brother’s premium. I told myself if my brother stopped wanting to pay for it I’d pay for it myself because I hate ads that much.
On the other hand, if Youtube itself takes it away from me I’m going to just stop watching Youtube.
inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Revance if you’re on android man. I mean I pay for premium but I still use it to patch the app at least.
xvertigox@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’m using Grayjay on android, I wonder how the feature set compares to Revanced? I like that Grayjay has sponsorblock built in.
olympicyes@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
On desktop, check out VacuumTube which is app that acts as a wrapper for YouTube Leanback (tv/console version) and has ad blocking built in.
foremanguy92_@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
Netflix trend
mysticpickle@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Anyone who actually pays for this shit has it coming.
aquovie@lemmy.cafe 2 weeks ago
If you watch vapid slop content on Youtube, that’s on you. Don’t blame Youtube for giving you what you apparently want. I watch howto’s, “edutainment”, science and engineering stuff, conference talks, and overall generally positive, helpful content. This is a totally different thing from Netflix, which is mostly just fiction. I’d never pay a subscription for that. The cost of Premium seems like a fair value for what I get out of it, especially since creators get a higher payout for Premium views.
Yeah, Google still tracks you. So does absolutely everyone else, including your ISP that you’re paying for. Until you make it illegal, that isn’t going to change. I’m not going to put everything on hold waiting for better consumer protection laws, shit’s way too dysfunctional for that to be realistic. Life isn’t perfect.
ripcord@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
K
x4740N@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
God forbid you have a parent who’s living away from home for work purposes who’s using that subscription
RagingRobot@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Yeah and you are also already paying for a set number of people that can use the account so why would it make a difference where they live? My brother is still my family even if we don’t live in the same state. They didn’t call it a household plan
NotKyloRen@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
They don’t care about whether they live with you or not. It’s about providing less service than what you’re paying for. Like how mobile carriers say, “unlimited data*” – *after 25GB, we [may] slow your connection speed to 256kbps
MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
My entire extended family shares a single household and a single Internet connection. /s
downhomechunk@midwest.social 2 weeks ago
I used to be an a friend’s planning exchange for sharing Disney plus. But he booted me after I kept putting weird shit on his family calendar.
“Wash that thing on your back that’s hard to reach and puts out a putrid smell.”
“Soak feet in melted butter.”
I’ve been a premium member since then. I’ve been watching the battle with ad blockers from the sidelines.
Who is winning that battle? This will inform my next move.
pleaseletmein@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Go on vacation? Believe it or not, banned.
Jackhammer_Joe@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Living in a dormitory? Belive it or not, also banned.
rekabis@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Sure, it takes a bit of effort. But if you replace your routers with ones that have open-source firmware or actual workstations acting as gateway routers and running business-class open-source software, you can create a personal VPN between everyone involved that shows only one exit point to world+dog.
The trick is with ensuring that all YouTube stuff gets properly and comprehensively funnelled through this exit node - VPNs can easily leak data if not configured properly, and sometimes do so despite good configs - and implementing this even on other devices that require individual VPN connectivity (roaming, like phones).
Plus, having a mobile device’s VPN auto-recognize when it’s connected to a known good network, and have it automatically disable itself in favour of the VPN on that network, is not something that’s easy to do.
Finally, doing so without a high-quality, high-speed ISP plan can easily lead to an unusably slow VPN. The “mothership” exit node, in particular, would have to be gigabit or better because it has both the node and connections to other homes and devices. If everyone started suckling the YouTube teat at the same time, things would likely slow down pretty fast on anything significantly less than gigabit.
camelbeard@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I have been using (re)vanced for many years, it’s free and takes a lot less effort.
Ernstrommel@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Meh. Growing up through the 90s makes be resilient and not even the slightest concerned about crap like this. I leave my device on the couch, go outside and enjoy life as I once had before greedy technology.
interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
How are they able to tell if you are in a different household ? If the user use different VPNs then it shouldn’t be able to tell the different between that and being in different locations. So are they gathering internal network data, are they spying on the LAN and wifi ?
Dyskolos@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Your browser sends more data than you want it to. And if it’s a specific app you’re talking about, they can do whatever they want and spy you dry. There’s a reason every shitty shit wants you to install their app instead of just using their fucking webpage, which already sucks enough.
Squizzy@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
NewPipe told me I was IP banned last week but it went away.
I’d rather stop using than give them money.
berty@feddit.org 2 weeks ago
This happens to me too when I watch to many videos of the same kind. Restarting my router solves it.
AlexLost@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Seems there is a market for spoofing specific IP addresses out there. What if they don’t know you are not at home? I ha e no clue how any of this works…
rumba@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
You just install tailscale on a home computer, tell it it’s an exit node. Install tailscale on your phone and your laptop and whatever other computers you have.
Boom, VPN home and use your home IP.
SanctimoniousApe@lemmings.world 2 weeks ago
Run a personal VPN server at the home address and have external users route through it. I’d think it’d work for any subscription service doing this crap. I’m surprised nobody has started selling a turnkey self-hosted VPN device that even a non-techie can get running in a few steps - all the end users would need is an app that does split tunneling for the media players.
Dyskolos@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Or just don’t pay for this shit that sooner or later will win the race anyway, no matter how much “resistance” you’d show.
KyuubiNoKitsune@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
I live 10000km from my mom, it’s just not efficient
vpklotar@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I’m thinking of doing the same but the issue is setting up the policy based routing so that only YouTube goes through that VPN.