Has anyone successfully blocked ads while using Tor on YT? It seems there is no way to get rid of the damn ads with Tor for some reason. I’ve tried using invidious instances but they all are insanely slow, often don’t work etc.
If you’re using the Tor Browser, the most private way would just be to use YouTube frontends like Invidious or Piped, but as you mentioned some instances can be slow or dysfunctional. Assuming you’re on desktop, you could try to route FreeTube over Tor but that might not be super easy to do.
The only other option I could think of is to install uBlock Origin in the Tor Browser (which is usually recommended against) and watch YouTube directly on their website. Though I do wonder if you’d have the same fingerprint as the Tails Tor Browser which comes with uBlock Origin pre-installed.
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The thing is, I already tried and it doesn’t work with any adblocker I used.
Strange… YouTube is known to try to circumvent ad blockers so there’s a bit of a cat and mouse game, but I haven’t had an issue with uBlock Origin (on Firefox) failing to block YouTube ads in a while. I’d read some of uBlock Origin’s documentation or ask their community to see what troubleshooting steps you can try to get it working. Otherwise you’ll just be stuck with the other options I mentioned.
You would probably be better off downloading the videos over Tor than attempting to stream them, which would also solve your ad problem.
have you even tried the https://inv.nadeko.net [Tor] instance?
while not on tor necessarily I tested on tor, it works very well and helps alot that they have multiple backends
Edit: tested, works as well as the experience with non-tor (for mine)
It works in Firefox, just not on Tor Browser for some reason
Yeah, I have this https://redirect.invidious.io/ and I tried them all. That one works decently sometimes and others doesn’t.
weird, nadeko.net’s instance has been wokring perfectly for me, I suggest you try it again ands utilize the multiple backends (Multiple backends are hyperlinks starting labeled: B1-B7) when it doesn’t work for some reason.
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Freetube comes with proxy settings. There’s a way to set it to use Tor.
I think I may be misunderstanding the question, but the official Tor Browser has no built-in adblocker, right? Wouldn’t you expect to see ads on youtube in Tor Browser?
If you want to use Tor Browser w/ adblocking, Tails seems like it may be the least bad option (because the version of Tor Browser used by Tails includes uBO ootb, so you don’t have to (fully) give up on a crowd to blend in with by using an adblocker).
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If I download ublock origin on Tor Browser I still see ads.
My understanding is that in most or all contexts this is strongly discouraged.
That said, I just tried it out for testing purposes only, and in my brief testing the official Tor Browser + official uBO does block YT ads with no special configuration on my part.
I have an educated guess as to why it isn’t working for you (and how to ‘fix’ that–but before sharing that, I feel like it’s prudent to ask if you’ve considered and understood the risks and consequences of using a non-standard Tor Browser configuration?
Here is a disclaimer from the Tor Project:
the only add-ons that have been tested for use with Tor Browser are those included by default. Installing any other browser add-ons may break functionality in Tor Browser or cause more serious problems that affect your privacy and security. It is strongly discouraged to install additional add-ons, and the Tor Project will not offer support for these configurations.
and a PG thread on the subject. PG gives a similar but more explicit warning in the Tor Browser recommendation:
Danger:
You should never install any additional extensions on Tor Browser or edit
about:configsettings, including the ones we suggest for Firefox. Browser extensions and non-standard settings make you stand out from others on the Tor network, thus making your browser easier to fingerprint.
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you might already know this, but I’ll just tell what I do:
Without Tor though:
I use a FOSS YT client, which is LibreTube, but there are others too, like PipePipe, NewPipe, NouTube
This way, there are no ads at all, and is better for privacy
That’s maybe because you didn’t enable it in Private Mode. Since Tor is private mode only, if you don’t enable the option the extension will not work. That’s probably why. But don’t use the same Tor for sensitive searches. What I would do is use Tor Alpha with uBo for YouTube, and Normal Tor for the rest.
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I don’t get it. Why Tor Alpha? just to have the 2 settings in 2 different clickable icons?
Isn’t there a way to add -arguments on the shortcut (or .desktop file if linux) and have it work on private mode?
Cause you can’t have two different installs of Tor.
Private Mode is basically the default mode of Tor.
So there’s no way to do this without 2 tors? typically most software has ways to launch with arguments.
That’s almost certainly the reason. At least that was the reason when I tested it.
I don’t know what you guys are talking about tbh. What even is “private mode” in tor context? I understand the concept of private mode in regular browsers, but tor’s traffic is always routed through the tor onion network, so im not sure what’s the deal.
Edit: Now I get it, you meant the option on the plugin itself. Yeah it seems to be working now.
Well, if this is a problem, isn’t there a way to disable ublock origin everywhere except youtube.com?
You’re probably better off using a VPN and Firefox w/ the Arkenfox user.js if you want to block Youtube ads.
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