YouTube - Recommended Steps if Video Ads Still Play (after v0.13.0)

#1

Update: 03.08.2017
There have been some changes made by YouTube, that are causing ads to display on YouTube for users that are signed into Google, signed out of Google, and causing an additional issue for embedded YouTube players on pages outside of YouTube.com.

For YouTube players that are embedded on sites that are outside of YouTube.com - having Brave Shields Up (blocking ads) is causing the player to break. You can resolve the issue by disabling shields for the sites where this behavior is occurring for embedded YouTube players.

For YouTube.com - the issue is more complicated, and we are working to resolve.

We are actively investigating and working on resolving both of these issues. If you’d like to track progress as we investigate, we are addressing both items on these two GitHub issues:

For YoutTube.com: https://github.com/brave/browser-laptop/issues/7432
For YouTube players embedded outside of YouTube.com: https://github.com/brave/browser-laptop/issues/7428

Update: 02.12.17
YouTube has made a player update on 02.10.17 that has impacted embedded YouTube player playback in non-youtube pages, and impacted video ad blocking in YouTube.

For users experiencing playback issues for embedded YouTube players on non-Youtube domains , temporary disabling of Shields will allow playback.

We are currently testing fixes for both scenarios, and will update on progress here.

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Steps to ensure effective Youtube video ad blocking

Why are these additional steps required?

Google updated their privacy policy in June, 2016 to remove a barrier that once separated ad data from other personal data across Google products and services.

https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/archive/20160325-20160628/

As a result, Google has begun merging Google domains typically used for ad tracking and requests with other Google domains that were not historically associated with advertising.

For example: Google.com and Youtube.com are now categorized as domains which Google associates with ad and tracking cookies.

A larger list of these domains are listed on this page for reference: https://www.google.com/policies/technologies/types/

The changes have made blocking ads and tracking on Youtube more difficult for users, and have required some additional steps beyond Brave Shields settings in order to ensure effective ad blocking.

Steps to Resolve:
If you are running Brave v0.13.0 or above, and are still observing ads in Youtube, we’d suggest taking the following steps:

1. Sign into your Google account.
2. Navigate to this URL: https://www.google.com/settings/u/0/ads/anonymous?hl=en
Switch these two settings from the ON to the OFF position:

  • Ads based on your interests on websites beyond google.com
  • Google Search Ads based on your interests

3. Navigate to this URL: https://www.google.com/settings/u/0/ads/authenticated?hl=en

Switch the following setting from the ON to the OFF position.

  • Ads based on your interests (When you are signed in to Google sites)

4. Launch Brave, and make sure that Shields settings are set to Block Ads and Tracking.

With the settings above applied, ads should no longer be observed within Youtube.

If you still observe ads in Brave v0.13.0 or above after following these steps, please let us know and we’ll be happy to work with you to resolve and make your YouTube viewing experience more private and enjoyable.

Youtube videos and godlikeproductions.com
Block ads on Youtube
#2
#3

Howdy,

New to the community, and new to Brave.
I am running Brave Version 0.13.2 on a 64 bit Linux Mint 18.1 platform.
Prior to running brave I used Chromium and Firefox, both which allowed tools such as uBlock origin and privacy badger, which worked great for blocking Google and YouTube ads. The issue I am having is that I am not signed into any Google accounts in my brave browser so the solution you have provided isn’t relevant to my situation.

Since switching to Brave, I get Google ads at the top of my search (I use Startpage.com as my search engine) and video ads in YouTube. My shield settings are set to block ads, cookie control is set to block third party cookies, and I have HTTPS everywhere, Block Phishing / Malware, and Fingerprinting Protection all turned on.

Since we’re unable to install 3rd party ad blocking extensions, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Chris

#4

Hi @SirHC,

Regarding the search ads, can you please leave a screenshot here for me to
file an issue with. Happy to investigate that.

Regarding YouTube:
A new player update was released on Friday that has included some updated
anti-ad blocking measures that we are working on a fix for.

Thanks,
Luke

#5

Sure thing. I took one screen shot from my regular search engine and another from duckduckgo.

Apparently being a new user I am only allowed to post one photo per reply, so my apologies for the second reply.

Screenshot from 2017-02-12 13-40-25.png1920x1052 244 KB

#6

From DuckDuckGo

Screenshot from 2017-02-12 13-49-40.png1920x1052 191 KB

#7

Thanks so much!

No worries about the additional replies, they are helpful for sure.

#8

Hi @SirHC,
Wanted to update you on these items.

Re: YouTube
We have been working through the blocking fix to address the latest player update, and are making progress.

Re: Search Engine Ads
I’ve filed an issue in Github, and am planning on tackling as an effort to audit ads across popular search engines and block accordingly. Feel free to follow along and contribute if you feel up for it.

Thanks again for raising the issues here.

#9

oops, coming back agai~~~n.

#10

@luke.mulks Thanks for the update! I will definitely follow and contribute anything else I find.

#11

cc: @sriram (embedded issue is listed above)

#12

I wanted to update the thread here with some good news. :lion_face: :shield:

With the v0.14.0 release that took place yesterday, we’re able to confirm:

  • Ad blocking has been restored within YT.com.
  • We have implemented additional functionality to help resolve issues with embedded youtube players when Brave Shields are enabled.

If you observe any issues with embedded YT players on sites beyond youtube.com, or encounter issues within youtube, please let us know.

If a site does not display or play videos in an embedded YT player, we can likely resolve by adding an exception for the site in question.

Thanks!

#13