Ad blockers are a security measure:
https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/pl/security/news/cybercrime...
I have no problem leaching... it's also about a better browsing experience and security.
https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/pl/security/news/cybercrime...
I have no problem leaching... it's also about a better browsing experience and security.
But the issue goes beyond just getting stuff from youtube directly. They are absolutely a source of links to unsafe places - their advertisement platform serves ads that send you to places with unsafe javascript.
So even if you was correct about "can not" (which is obviously untrue)... they can and regularly do cause issue none the less.
And "but youtube" sidesteps the issue that ad blockers aren't just security from youtube. Youtube is one of millions of websites. Full of shitty websites with horrible security practices and awful practices around annoying advertisements.
It is not obviously untrue. Internet ads with malicous JavaScript come from sketchy ad networks. YouTube does not auction its ad space to third party ad networks.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/fake-keepass-...
Malicious JS, to be fair, shouldn’t be able to do really any significant damage. However, it is the right of the user to decide what gets displayed on their screen and grabs their attention span.
Ad Blockers stop the secondary stuff (ad campaigns that YouTube serves sending you to unsafe places) as well as primary stuff (actual "malicious" JavaScript served directly from YouTube). (they also do stuff like block trackers and the like but those aren't the topic of conversation here precisely other than saying that Ad Blockers are a security measure on many levels - not just on YouTube proper)
While the odds are low that YouTube itself will serve malicious JavaScript... the chance isn't 0. They have better security practices than other smaller companies but stupid or malicious employees exist and - as I think I said - things have been known to happen. Even with best practices stuff like supply chain attacks exist as do stuff like stuff injected into dependencies.
So while there hasn't been an "actual" breach at YouTube (if you exclude their malicious ad campaigns which "only" direct you to unsafe places but aren't DIRECTLY served by YouTube)... the fact remains that interacting with YouTube (or anything on the internet) WILL lead to eventually to unsafe places.
I have no problem admitting that YouTube is going to be better at not directly serving adware/malware/etc... but can you admit that that's not what I personally am focused on? My original statement that Ad Blockers are security is 100% justified based on the decades of experience at this point.