this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2023
2297 points (97.6% liked)

Technology

59555 readers
3396 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
L3s@lemmy.world
L3s@fry.gs
L4s@fry.gs
L4s@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
2297
Youtube's Anti-adblock is illegal in the EU (eupolicy.social)
submitted 1 year ago by ugjka@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
438 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] harlatan@feddit.de 70 points 1 year ago (2 children)

that would be illegal too, because that information is not strictly necessary for their service - they could only opt to not provide the service in the eu

[–] JasSmith@sh.itjust.works 36 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don’t agree. They can reasonably argue that advertising is a requirement of their business model, so it is necessary to advertise. Therefore it is necessary for them to block access to those blocking advertising. The directive cited isn’t intended to make advertiser supported services effectively illegal in the EU. That would be a massive own goal. It’s intended to make deceptive and unnecessary data collection illegal. Nothing YouTube is doing is deceptive. They’re being very clear about their intention to advertise to non-subscribers.

[–] ELI70@lemmy.run 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They can reasonably argue that advertising is a requirement of their business model,

Couldn't that claim be countered by pointing out that they already deploy a for pay approach called youtube premium?

[–] JasSmith@sh.itjust.works 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No, because businesses have multiple revenue streams. YouTube has a subscription offering, and a free, advertiser-supported offering. Both are part of their business model.

[–] ELI70@lemmy.run 2 points 1 year ago

alright

[–] Sphks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

There are multiple French websites that do this. It is legal (otherwise these websites would not do this anymore, it's been a while).
There is a popup asking you if you consent to get cookies (for advertisement). If you say "no", it leads you to another popup with two choices :

  • Change your decision and accept cookies
  • Pay for a premium service without advertisements
[–] Honytawk@lemmy.zip 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

That is just because the people who enforce the EDPB guidelines just haven't come around to fining those websites.

That practice is still illegal.

Want to speed up the process? You can report those websites. The more reports the faster those get punished.

[–] Sphks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No, that's not that clear for the moment.

Let me explain the French case :

  • Webedia is a big company that owns most of the famous French websites (jeuxvideo.com , etc.). All these websites have cookie walls with an alternative : a paid subsription. What they say, is that the website is now accessible with subscription only. However, if you accept cookies, you'll get a discount (free access).
  • The CNIL (a big French governemental entity) tried to forbid this. If someone reports a website, it's for this entity to take action. There is no need to report Webedia, the CNIL knows already :-)
  • The Conseil d'Etat (juridical entity of the French gov) said that "non", it's OK for Webedia to use such paywalls. The CNIL can't forbid Webedia to use them.
  • The CNIL asked the jusrists at the European level... here we are. We still don't know.

Here is a French website where the CNIL explains this :
https://www.cnil.fr/fr/cookie-walls-la-cnil-publie-des-premiers-criteres-devaluation

[–] harlatan@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

Well, seems like my gdpr knowledge got too rusty. at least to me its an interesting topic to actualise

[–] MrPozor@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 1 year ago

Same in Germany and Switzerland. I just close the site immediately when I see this kind of blackmailing. Or use 12ft.io if I absolutely want to read the article.