Privacy Advocate Files Data Protection Complaint That YouTube’s AdBlocker Blocker Violates Privacy Laws

Over the last few weeks, YouTube has been cracking down on YouTube adblockers, blocking users who are using such adblockers (or, in some cases, disabling extensions). There are still some ways around it, but apparently it's becoming more difficult.

Here at Techdirt, we've always been pro-adblocker (even though we sometimes have ads on the site, for years, we've let you turn off ads on Techdirt - and unlike most sites, we don't even charge you for that or even ask you to login). Our view has long been that adblocking is a right. You have the right to control what happens on your own computer, and if you (quite reasonably!) feel safer without ads, you should use an adblocker.

If sites want users not to block ads, they need to give those users a good reason not to block ads. Blocking adblockers, however, is not a good reason. Not surprisingly, though, YouTube's crackdown is leading many users to delete their adblockers.

However, in an interesting move, a privacy advocate in the EU, Alexander Hanff, has filed a complaint arguing that this anti-adblocking attempt violates data protection laws by using JavaScript to detect adblockers without consent:

Privacy advocate Alexander Hanff has filed a complaint with the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) accusing YouTube of using JavaScript code to detect ad-blocking extensions without explicit consent. YouTube's Terms of Service do not explicitly disallow ad blocking extensions, but the language suggests that blocking ads on the platform may be a violation.

YouTube's recent deployment of a popup notice to web users with ad-blocking extensions has raised concerns about non-consensual technical interaction and potential violations of the EU's ePrivacy Directive. Hanff argues that YouTube's script for ad-blocking detection violates the directive by not obtaining explicit consent from users before conducting browser interrogation.

This is not Hanff's first rodeo on these issues. Back in 2016, we wrote about him arguing that other anti adblockers also violated the EU's ePrivacy Directive.

It's not entirely clear to me that his analysis of the law is correct... but it would certainly be nice to find out that it is. Again, from my perspective, users should be able to use whatever software on their own computers to do what they want, including blocking ads from loading on a computer. That's just a straight up right to block content from your own computer if you'd like.

And, yes, you could argue that Google then has the right to try to counter that on its own side, and block users that it doesn't want to access its servers because they're using adblockers. But Hanff is at least somewhat credibly arguing that it doesn't have that right because of how adblockers potentially violate your privacy by scanning how you've set up your browser.