What’s the problem

Earlier this month, YouTube’s fight against ad blockers emerged from a testing period. The platform began blocking videos from watching anyone who installed a blocker in their browser, offering to buy a premium subscription without ads or watch videos with ads. In these actions aimed at increasing profits, signs of violations of the law on computer misuse were detected.

According to media reports, the complaint was filed by Alexander Hanff. He applied with a statement to the Irish National Police to initiate criminal proceedings, and there his complaint was accepted, requesting further information on the matter. Authorities also turned to Google for answers to the case.

What is Hanff talking about YouTube is responsible for running illegal tracking scripts that help the platform detect ad blockers. One of them is the browser query system, which is directly responsible for detecting blockers. According to the plaintiff, this practice means that the service is spying on EU citizens.

I consider the YouTube script to be spyware – a so-called tracking technology, because it was placed on my device without my knowledge or permission for the sole purpose of interfering and monitoring my behavior (whether ads are loaded on my browser or blocked by an ad). blocker).
– says Hanff.

The author of the complaint hopes that this criminal case will send a signal to YouTube and force Google to stop its tracking practices that contravene EU law. He says that consent is important for unnecessary interactions and that the platform does not ask for any consent from citizens. “I decided to pursue criminal charges because historically EU regulators have been absolutely terrible at enforcing the ePrivacy Directive. Very poorly, I would even say negligently.”.

Irish law provides for liability for directors, managers or other officers who knowingly commit such offenses and who are not protected by the legal entity for which they work. Additionally, if a case is won, it will set a precedent for the whole world to start a war with Google and for the company to stop blocking ad blockers.