Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – YouTube is tightening its policies to eradicate ad blocking services on its platform. Some time ago, many users reported pop-ups appearing on YouTube.

The pop-up warns users to remove ad blockers and switch to a paid subscription plan, aka Premium, to enjoy ads without content.

Now, this policy has boomeranged for YouTube. A team of privacy security advocates in the European Union said YouTube violated the rules that apply in Europe.

One privacy expert, Alexander Hanff, filed a complaint in October with the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC). Hanff argued that YouTube’s ad-blocking tracking system is an invasion of privacy and illegal under European Union law.

“The AdBlock detection service is spyware. There is no other way to describe it. Therefore, this practice is unacceptable,” Hanff told The Verge.

“I consider the application of any technology that can be used to spy on my device to be unethical and illegal,” he added, quoted Thursday (9/11/2023).

YouTube can detect whether a device is using an ad blocker by downloading JavaScript code to check for changes to the user’s page, according to the New York Times.

Last June, YouTube began trying to block ad blocking services for a small number of users. Now, YouTube’s efforts are becoming more aggressive. Some users who still use ad blockers cannot access content.

When they want to watch a video, they will see a display asking to watch ads or subscribe to YouTube Premium.

As a result, many users have removed ad blocking services. One ad blocker company, AdGuard, said that more than 11,000 people have uninstalled its Chrome extension every day since October 9. That compares with 6,000 uninstalls per day before YouTube implemented the change.

Digital advocate in Germany and member of the European Parliament, Patrick Breyer, also said that YouTube’s efforts to eradicate ad blocking services violate the rules.

“YouTube wants to enforce spying on advertising and detect ad blocking services,” he said via his personal Mastodon account.

If the European Commission ultimately finds that ad blocking services violate privacy regulations, YouTube could face a fine. Apart from that, YouTube can also be asked to change its features.

[Gambas:Video CNBC]

(fab/fab)