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?
ProtonVPN (Paid) does work fine with Youtube for me. I think that VPNs with a small number of servers are gonna get blocked more often that bigger VPNs with more servers (since users are more spread out and it wont seem like there are 10,000 requests coming from the same IP)
As for Movies and Tv, you can pirate.
Youtube doesn’t work when not signed into a Google account, or if one is connected to a VPN.
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?
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.
You should check out…
Particularly their Grayjay app, but definitely check out their other privacy focused projects as well.
Uff. Well, depending on where you live, there’s still old-school linear TV and radio. Piracy… Or the Blueray collection in the local library. They have educational books as well. I don’t have my hopes up for services like Youtube, they’re all subject of enshittification and privacy-invasive business models. And the proxies like piped.video or downloaders seem to not work all the time, these days. There are Podcasts, though. Blogs and news websites and other privacy respecting services like the Fediverse.
I’m glad my Youtube account still runs without being verified using my phone number. That might change, though. I’ve lost another Google account due to this.
Well, depending on where you live, there’s still old-school linear TV and radio. Piracy… Or the Blueray collection in the local library.
Where do you live that has Youtube channels being broadcast on TV or available on discs at the library?
I thought the question was more about media in general, not about Youtube channels in specific.
But I live in Germany, the collaboration between public broadcasting and Youtube creators is called Funk. They occasionally broadcast stuff on the speciality channels and some creators landed a show on the main program, resulting in shows like MaiThink X. Though that kind of stuff is then in turn sometimes not published on Youtube, since they want to promote their own internet streaming platform, called “Mediathek”. And you’re going to have a hard time accessing all of that unless you’re inside of Germany, since they use geoblocking. We also have a few other nice shows on public TV, like Feuer und Flamme, some satire / late-night shows, content for children, good regional news etc.
And the products I see from Youtubers and podcasters (" Influencers") in the library (or bookstore) are mostly books. Like cookbooks, sometimes novels, or they’ll write some long form essays about the same thing their regular content is about and they’ll try to make some extra money by selling books to their fans. I don’t think they do DVDs. Most people are still on Youtube or TikTok and borrowing discs or watching linear TV is too cumbersome for their target audience.
Invideous is still a thing, so is piped.video
Or try and work together with video creators to use peertube or similar platforms. I understand that this may be next to impossible, but if enough viewers start pushing for it, it is theortically not impossible
Edit: forgot a word that changes the meaning to the opposite if left out
Install jellyfin on your computer, Buy second hand DVDs from people who are selling them, rip them onto your PC.
That doesn’t help for the Youtube-first (or rather, Youtube-only) media OP is actually complaining about:
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 a few channels using things like Nebula or Floatplane, but for most Youtube channels, if you can’t watch them on Youtube you’re shit outta luck.
Thrift stores are also a great way to pick up DVDs and CDs. My server is loaded with music and media. We don’t use any subscription services. Everything we watch or listen to we own and enjoy without any third parties spying on us.
I use invidious on my PC and pipepipe on my phone. i highly recommend both.
