In Europe, a privacy consultant is bringing criminal charges against YouTube for scripts that detect and restrict ad blockers. A man named Alexander Hanff says YouTube is breaking privacy laws by using sneaky scripts to see if people use ad blockers.
Mr Hanff filed a complaint with the police in Ireland. He said YouTube secretly installs scripts on browsers without asking permission. These scripts watch to see if ads load normally or if ad blockers block them. Mr Hanff thinks this counts as illegal spying on people in the EU.
YouTube also got a complaint from Mr Hanff with Ireland’s privacy regulator. Now YouTube has to explain to the regulator what the scripts do and why. Mr. Hanff said regulators in Europe are not good at enforcing privacy laws, so he felt he had to file a criminal report too.
YouTube recently made a rule that blocks users from the site if they use ad blockers. Mr Hanff doesn’t like this rule because it forces people to either see ads or pay for YouTube Premium. He hopes his complaints will make YouTube stop the sneaky scripts and respect people’s privacy.
Under EU law, websites need permission before tracking people or running extras in their browsers. Directors at companies can also get in trouble for illegally spying. Mr Hanff wants YouTube to own up and quit spying on users in Europe through sneaky ad blocker detection scripts. It will be interesting to see if YouTube gets into real privacy trouble over this!
