Windows Phone returns from grave as an anti-ad-blocker on YouTube

[Alfonso Maruccia]

In a nutshell: The User-Agent is a string of text in the HTTP header designed to identify what browser, device, and operating system the netizen is using to visit a website. Someone discovered that by turning this mechanism back to 2017, it's possible to force YouTube to work on adblock-powered systems again.

YouTube recently started a new "experiment" to annoy users with adblock extensions on their browsers, trying to force a substantial number of them to either allow advertising on the site or pay for the YouTube Premium subscription. The experiment turned out to be an incredibly engaging incentive for finding even more ways to disable YouTube's new anti-adblocker campaign.

We can confirm that the latest version of Mozilla Firefox along with the uBlock Origin extension work pretty well at hiding advertising on YouTube. According to a software engineer and "malware enthusiast" known as "Enderman" on Twitter/X, the same result can be achieved by changing the browser's user-agent to "Windows Phone," which is rather surprising, considering that the Windows Phone platform has been dead for at least six years.

Microsoft officially pulled the plug on the company's ill-fated mobile operating system in 2017, just three years after its original debut on the market. The inability to watch YouTube videos was always one of the biggest issues with the platform, as Google actively tried (and succeeded) to sabotage whatever "official" YouTube support Microsoft attempted to implement in the OS.

Now, Enderman confirmed that the Windows Phone can get its just revenge against Google and YouTube's unwillingness to support the mobile platform. By employing a user-agent spoofer to change the browser's identity to Windows Phone, ads are blocked again. The company states the ad-blockers violate YouTube's Terms of Service, the software engineer remarked, but user-agent spoofers definitely don't.

Agent spoofers are widely available on major web browsers, and Google is even providing its own official extension for Chrome. The extension is seemingly targeted at users sick of "some archaic site blocking" while visiting problematic websites, but it should work pretty well as a Windows Phone-powered anti-ad-blocker blocker as well.

While the user-agent spoofing trick seems to work for now, the future of advertising-free binge-watching on YouTube is always uncertain. Google could update its adblock-detecting techniques to counter Windows Phone's sudden increase in popularity, or it could even decide to conclude its experiment without further pushing resourceful users to try new, creative ways to fight the renewed anti-adblocker effort.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/100583-windows-phone-returns-grave-anti-ad-blocker-blocker.html

 

[Dunkerton]

I'm highly considering using the Nothing phone and just using the Brave browser for youtube on it. Currently with Brave, you can circumvent youtube's adblock preventers on even current phones, but I want a Nothing phone for its lack of bloatware

 

[m4a4]

Well, you can bet now that the cat's out of the bag they'll address that particular identity in an update.

Still have yet to see an anti-adblocker message with uBlock going though...

 

[oasked]

Microsoft's Edge Browser plus uBlock still working here for YouTube, no need (yet) to spoof your identity

 

[mbrowne5061]

I'm highly considering using the Nothing phone and just using the Brave browser for youtube on it. Currently with Brave, you can circumvent youtube's adblock preventers on even current phones, but I want a Nothing phone for its lack of bloatware

Genuinely curious - why not Firefox? Brave is Chromium at the end of the day, so its always going to be influences at least somewhat by Google since they are a large (the main) contributor to that engine.

 

[Sir Sparkles]

I found the Windows phone user agent presented very poorly, made the site almost unusable. Yandex user agent is great though. Google stopped trading with Russians so no ads anyway. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Vanderlinde]

The problem is "Adblock" - Adblock is getting donations from Google to "allow acceptable ads"

Why do you think it still works on Ublock Origin or Adguard for that matter? Exactly.

The people behind Adblock have gone rogue.

 

[Sir Sparkles]

The problem is "Adblock" - Adblock is getting donations from Google to "allow acceptable ads"

Why do you think it still works on Ublock Origin or Adguard for that matter? Exactly.

The people behind Adblock have gone rogue.

Lay off the conspiracy coffee man.

 

[kiwigraeme]

Strange I can watch YT sans videos for 3 days now - seems to come and go - my useless guesstimate - is they will battle for another month - then count the wins and losses - new viewers watching adverts , new premium users, loss of chrome browsers as number one browser.
Then they will repeat an attack every 6 months or a year

Just need at extension - to watch it for you on mute , then chime when ready to watch
I don't watch adverts - but least on TV , radio not as invasive in your face- turn radio down - change station , get up go get a coffee for TV - do something else - but with YT on a monitor like those old disney cartoons - gluing your eyeballs to the screen - as right in front of it - maybe headphones on

As for websites - I think most of us that are older - remember all the BS , crazy popup's , spyware , 1001 trackers , invisible one dot thingies on your screen - adverts chewing up 5x the bandwidth compared to actual content - flashing crap all over your screen - getting an ad-blocker was a no brainer for sanity , your pocket ( bandwidth ) , your eyes , your PC security - Plus locking your page , disabling back button that you needed to close down broswer in windows manager

 

[MaXtor]

No issue blocking Youtube ads here with uBlock Origin (and SponsorBlock).

Lay off the conspiracy coffee man.

Grab yourself a cup of reality coffee, it's quite the waker-upper.

 

[Sir Sparkles]

No issue blocking Youtube ads here with uBlock Origin (and SponsorBlock).

So because it works for you it must work for everyone?
Checking for a friend.

 

[Plutoisaplanet]

I'm highly considering using the Nothing phone and just using the Brave browser for youtube on it. Currently with Brave, you can circumvent youtube's adblock preventers on even current phones, but I want a Nothing phone for its lack of bloatware

Genuinely curious - why not Firefox? Brave is Chromium at the end of the day, so its always going to be influences at least somewhat by Google since they are a large (the main) contributor to that engine.

Something that Brave is particularly good at for YouTube is letting you watch videos offline later on. It’s only available for iOS though: https://brave.com/playlist/

 

[MaXtor]

So because it works for you it must work for everyone?
Checking for a friend.

 

[Vanderlinde]

Lay off the conspiracy coffee man.

Dude,
it's in their TOS; "Acceptable ads"

 

[Sir Sparkles]

Dude,
it's in their TOS; "Acceptable ads"

Yeah dude, you should read that.
And you can un-accept their acceptable ads if you wish as well, simply turn them off. It's not being forced on anyone.

https://adblockplus.org/acceptable-ads

It seems that many people want all their webz for free these days and even a whiff that something might not be free means that companies are rogue or exploitative. How exactly do these people think ad blocking plugin application programmers make money to pay for the electricity that they make adblockers with? They somehow think that they are entitled to free services, and anyone who provides a service that's helpful but is trying to pay the bills at the same time is suddenly evil... even if everything is laid out in black and white and you can completely opt out of supporting them at all.

I don't even know why I am supporting these people, they aren't my friends, but I am kinda tired of free and/or free and open source programmers being seen as corrupt in some way if they ever ask for anything back for their services. The entitlement to their work reeks.

 

[Vanderlinde]

Thing is, it's turned on by default. So your getting "accepted ads" thus those notices on Youtube for example. Yes I do understand advertising is a important role on any website, but, in the last 10 years we had malware, scams, targeted advertising with fraud intentions. None of those ad farms like Google, Bing, Meta and such are actually checking any of the advertisements that are shot in. And users are send straight to scams online losing money.

Those company's do not care - I've bin dealing with it myself. Let alone the whole moderation now is sacked and replaced with AI. It's so stupid.

Use a adblocker.

 

[Sir Sparkles]

Google has turned out to be a terrible malware and scam slinger, it's certainly as bad as you say or even worse. They seem to prioritize scam advertising in many instances.

I feel for smaller sites trying to make a living though, even though I use several script and add blockers to be sure that my machine isn't being manipulated. A few paid subs and exceptions on my favourite sites makes me hope that they will be around longer.

 

[Vanderlinde]

It's all about money. And because of that, people should use adblockers more often. It protects them because they cannot protect their users from false, misleading advertising or another scam about someone's computer being damaged.