With a privacy protecting setup, the mainstream internet is almost unusable. To sign up for social media or even a gmail account, one has to provide a phone number for verification. Youtube doesn’t work when not signed into a Google account, or if one is connected to a VPN. Even downloader programs like yt-dlp and freyr have been rendered useless by the strict access controls of the major platforms. There is a vast amount of community, DIY, and educational material of all sorts behind these platform walls, so how can someone who doesn’t want to be tracked access any of it these days?
There are alternatives like archive.org and peertube which are wonderful but have nowhere near the amount of content that people have been uploading to YouTube over the years. For example, if I need to fix a washing machine and there is a tutorial on YouTube, how can I see it while still preserving a modicum of privacy online?
Youtube works fine without an account? I just checked. It also works fine with a VPN, again I just checked. Maybe this is a country thing, or something with your browser?
What’s your browser setup if you don’t mind sharing?
Firefox. I used an incognito tab, and I have all extensions turned off since I mostly use incognito to check if they’re fucking with something.
YMMV. When I do go to youTube, I use it signed out and with a VPN. Sometimes it works, and sometimes of doesn’t. It’s anecdotal, but true.
Youtube has gotten so aggressive about blocking third party clients, I’ve actually seen it worse with domestic IPs than VPN exit nodes depending on the node. A VPN provider with a large number of exits is your best bet to youtube I find.
With Mullvad I’m blocked most of the time on YouTube, whether I use the official client or not.
I dont have that issue. Most Mullvad servers work for me on Youtube via Tubular (Newpipe). If it doesnt work I just change servers.
Same here. Watching YT is fine (logged in or not), but using yt-dlp doesn’t work. I have to run a split tunnel with my terminal to do this.