Overall it works but the problem lies in instances that tend to die-off pretty fast. There were homebrew "hubs" solely providing redirects out of pure kindness to many big sites and services but now it seems it's hard to find one that works without being blocked/rate limited. Big sites and services fight back, which isn't really surprising.
Privacy Redirect was prob the first extension that introduced this idea. It did the job as well but up until bad-actors figured out they can redirect people to their dangerous sites.
johnisgood · 9m ago
Proxigram? I doubt I could run that on Android.
kelvinjps10 · 1h ago
I love this extension
bmacho · 2h ago
A web extension is an unnecessary security risk. A userscript will do it just fine.
I actually have made it extensible, with closely coupled source of rules and domains; but then I lost it Edge forgot all my userscripts :(
londons_explore · 2h ago
User scripts have super wide permissions. For example a user script scoped to YouTube.com can make payments from any cards you have saved in Google pay.
And most user scripts are so long a typical user won't be able to spot a couple of malicious lines amongst 10k lines of minified webpacked libraries.
rvnx · 2h ago
You also have to weight the benefits versus the "risk".
For example, if you use FreeTube with SponsorBlock to improve your privacy and block ads, in fact you are sending to Cloudflare 100% of your YouTube watch history, and to SponsorBlock ("sponsor.ajay.io").
With Piped instances it's even worse, essentially escaping Google's tracking just to give our data to random strangers.
If you are worried, just run a second Chrome session with NordVPN and uBlock Origin in a loose jurisdiction and browse YouTube unlogged.
It's easy, simple, and you have the benefits of an audited platform and that reasonably legally confirm they don't store logs unless the court forced them: "we never log their activity unless ordered by a court never log their activity unless ordered by a court", but for that, the court has to find you as a user, which can be very complicated in practice.
So much better than random strangers.
HK-NC · 59m ago
I'm happy to give my watch history to some unknown in exchange for never ever seeing an ad.
latexr · 1h ago
> If you are worried, just run a second Chrome session with NordVPN
> And most user scripts are so long a typical user won't be able to spot a couple of malicious lines amongst 10k lines of minified webpacked libraries.
Exactly!
That's why you should use 3 lines for it instead, that are
- inspectable
- not updateable by the Chinese/Russians
- written by you anyway
eviks · 1h ago
The extension links to 50+ services, your script - to 1. Do you now suggest that every single user should figure out how to do it properly and replicate the extension in a script for no better alternative (you could instead spend part of that time reading the extension code and using your private copy)
bmacho · 1h ago
I don't think that not having all the services is a problem. On the contrary, I think it is an advantage for userscripts, that those only have the redirects a user explicitly adds.
Tho I probably should've demonstrated first that it is possible, before advocating for it. The script I linked indeed only works for one website. Multiple websites with multiple rules, each with a list of instances (that often go offline for a time, so it is worth keeping them around, and make switching easy) indeed complicates it a bit.
eviks · 45m ago
So what exactly is the advantage of having to code all the rules yourself for every service you want to use??
> complicates it a bit
a bit of an understatement
bmacho · 31m ago
> So what exactly is the advantage of having to code all the rules yourself for every service you want to use??
"having to code all the rules" is not that hard, in most cases you can just pass the whole URL, and the instance accepts it.
Advantages: you don't get unwanted redirects from services, and you don't get unwanted redirects to instances. (Even tho the information about the instances will likely be concentrated at libredirect github issues. Chances are that some random person on the internet who has paranoid activities as a hobby will look into the instances, so you don't have to.)
- - -
I don't use many redirects. Nowadays I use exactly 0. But if I needed a redirect for example to xcancel, I would use my user-script as I had done it in the past before I lost it. I definitely wouldn't install a browser extension for it.
eviks · 22m ago
> in most cases a slice(,) will do it since the relevant id is at a fixed position in the URL.
In all cases that also involves actually finding the URLs, then there are non-most cases where a slice wouldn't do it.
> Nowadays I use exactly 0
Exactly. If you ignore actual uses everything becomes trivial
1oooqooq · 42m ago
just disable auto update and have the same bad usability as user script.
bmacho · 9m ago
With still worse security than user-scripts.
4ad · 47m ago
I want the opposite, an extension that will redirect all crappy frontends to the canonical sources (which work better and I am logged-into, I can comment, etc).
fmbb · 40m ago
Don’t almost all of them show a link to the source anyway?
hsbauauvhabzb · 1h ago
Do any of these YouTube extensions retrieve videos in a way which is unassociated with my IP? I’d really rather not get my google account banned, or my searches rate limited. These aren’t happening now, but I believe they will in the future to the point where I actively avoid using any tooling from my home connection, and vps’ seem to be blocked by YouTube already.
v5v3 · 8m ago
VPNs are not blocked by YouTube.
Neither is viewing YouTube using Tor Browser.
pimeys · 51m ago
If you have a dynamic IP at home, run it in your homelab and access it through Tailscale everywhere. I highly doubt YouTube will block the whole IP block for home users.
hsbauauvhabzb · 12m ago
That doesn’t solve the issue of my google search traffic and fingerprint from coming from the same source as yt-dlp.
Razengan · 1h ago
How long before browsers disable these kinds of in-user-favor workarounds?
Like Apple removing the "Disable JavaScript" menu option from Safari and moving it into Developer Tools, which can be detected by websites before you can disable JS >:(
reddalo · 59m ago
I think the real question is: should we keep using browsers that are developed by ad companies? And the answer is no, we should just use Mozilla Firefox.
This comment could've been phrased better, but Farside does have an important feature that LibRedirect lacks, which is automatic instance selection based on reachability. Instances routinely fail and new ones are added, so automating that aspect instead of requiring manual instance selection by the user is a powerful feature.
Anyway, thanks for mentioning it!
MallocVoidstar · 49m ago
Using Farside means the initial redirect goes through Farside, so they are capable of knowing what videos you're watching, what tweets you're looking at, etc. You have to trust them not to monitor this. Using a client-side extension means only the instance you use knows this.
imiric · 37m ago
It's a Go project that seems trivial to self-host. By your logic we shouldn't trust any of the instances of the alternative services either since anyone could be monitoring their use as well.
iLoveOncall · 1h ago
Maybe for the fact it as 4 times as many stars on GitHub if that's what you care about?
Privacy Redirect was prob the first extension that introduced this idea. It did the job as well but up until bad-actors figured out they can redirect people to their dangerous sites.
edit: one of my previous attempt: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35229211
I actually have made it extensible, with closely coupled source of rules and domains; but then I lost it Edge forgot all my userscripts :(
And most user scripts are so long a typical user won't be able to spot a couple of malicious lines amongst 10k lines of minified webpacked libraries.
For example, if you use FreeTube with SponsorBlock to improve your privacy and block ads, in fact you are sending to Cloudflare 100% of your YouTube watch history, and to SponsorBlock ("sponsor.ajay.io").
With Piped instances it's even worse, essentially escaping Google's tracking just to give our data to random strangers.
If you are worried, just run a second Chrome session with NordVPN and uBlock Origin in a loose jurisdiction and browse YouTube unlogged.
It's easy, simple, and you have the benefits of an audited platform and that reasonably legally confirm they don't store logs unless the court forced them: "we never log their activity unless ordered by a court never log their activity unless ordered by a court", but for that, the court has to find you as a user, which can be very complicated in practice.
So much better than random strangers.
I feel like I’m on YouTube already.
It’s not like they are free of criticism either.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NordVPN#Criticism
Exactly!
That's why you should use 3 lines for it instead, that are
Tho I probably should've demonstrated first that it is possible, before advocating for it. The script I linked indeed only works for one website. Multiple websites with multiple rules, each with a list of instances (that often go offline for a time, so it is worth keeping them around, and make switching easy) indeed complicates it a bit.
> complicates it a bit
a bit of an understatement
"having to code all the rules" is not that hard, in most cases you can just pass the whole URL, and the instance accepts it.
Advantages: you don't get unwanted redirects from services, and you don't get unwanted redirects to instances. (Even tho the information about the instances will likely be concentrated at libredirect github issues. Chances are that some random person on the internet who has paranoid activities as a hobby will look into the instances, so you don't have to.)
- - -
I don't use many redirects. Nowadays I use exactly 0. But if I needed a redirect for example to xcancel, I would use my user-script as I had done it in the past before I lost it. I definitely wouldn't install a browser extension for it.
In all cases that also involves actually finding the URLs, then there are non-most cases where a slice wouldn't do it.
> Nowadays I use exactly 0
Exactly. If you ignore actual uses everything becomes trivial
Neither is viewing YouTube using Tor Browser.
Like Apple removing the "Disable JavaScript" menu option from Safari and moving it into Developer Tools, which can be detected by websites before you can disable JS >:(
Download today people https://www.torproject.org/download/
Using venrable farside.link
https://sr.ht/~benbusby/farside/
https://farside.link/
Why use your offering?
Anyway, thanks for mentioning it!