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Comment by spentu | Hacker News Reader

I noticed this yesterday and now I am wondering what to do. Especially when more and more videos are getting flagged.

ID is out of the question, credit card seems more plausible. However, i wonder what happens when you give the number. I don't want that it sticks after validation...

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The only possibility is to get out of Youtube (and other walled gardens) as soon as possible. Talk to your favorite content producers about Peertube, maybe setup an instance with some friends if you're sure you can handle that for the coming decade and not close down in 6 months time.

Both viewers and producers are heavily dissatisfied with Youtube. Time to move on.

If you allow adult videos without age verification you'll get shut down.

YouTube actually allowing adult videos is not something to diss. The fact that they need age verification is the price for it, the alternative is removing all those videos.

According to google ID cards are deleted after age has been proven, but for some reason they might keep credit card information.

>Important: If you enter your credit card info for age verification, Google will retain this data as necessary to meet legal and regulatory requirements.

Must be because of audit laws relating to processing credit cards.

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/10071085?p=age-ve...

Would it be worth it to just get a credit card for the sole purpose of youtube-dl? Maybe put some kind of limit on it, if possible?

Long time ago I remember reading about some service, that allows using single use credit cards. Last year I was looking for it, as many services cannot ne trusted with this information. But I could nothing like it. Maybe I was just dreaming...

Getting a legit card like that could be possible, but I don't think its worth of hassle and possible costs. Some companies practically throw these cards on you, but usually there is a catch.

You might be thinking of Privacy [0].

[0] https://privacy.com/

Capital One has an app called Eno which generates alternate card numbers, but they are still tied to the same account and identity.

Revolut has disposable virtual cards - https://www.revolut.com/help/making-payments/getting-a-card/...

My capital one card has virtual cards, and I’ve seen it other places. The only issue is that it’s done by a browser add on that has incredibly high permissions. I handle it by using a separate Firefox profile for the rare occasions I need to use them. I start Firefox with that profile, use it, then go back into my normal profile.

I’d use a temp card from privacy.com or something.

That's naive, they will eventually block those kind of virtual cards just like they block virtual phone numbers. The point is to tie the account to a real identity.

It's not about the limit, but about the tying of identity. If you enter a CC number, Google will then be able to know exactly who viewed the video. If you use youtube-dl, or even ad-blocking, who knows if that violates some T&C, and they could then shut down all accounts connected to you...

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