There’s tons of articles out there on how to use old cell phones for this. Here’s one of zillions:

https://www.airdroid.com/remote-control/best-free-app-to-turn-old-phone-into-security-camera/

They have been cracking down on ad blockers (like Ublock) on the free version of YouTube. If you have YouTube Premium, they don’t care if you use an ad blockers, at least for now.

Google also has a project in the works where only “verified” browsers with no extensions (or only approved ones) will be allowed to use web sites that implement the restrictions. I don’t know the current status or if it will happen, but it’s scary stuff.

https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/25/google_web_environment_integrity/

Just be careful, there are some legit concerns that they could ban you. Getting banned from YouTube wouldn’t be too bad, but getting banned from all Google services could be highly disruptive for a lot of people (gmail, Android phones, maps, many other things).

Pure speculation on my part, but large corporations like Google always have endless meetings full of people just looking for any kind of shit to justify their jobs. I figured it was inevitable before some goons there put their sites on ad blockers and am surprised it took this long. After all, those of us that use them (including me) are using their resources without giving them any revenue in return. (Well, that’s not entirely true, I was a Premium subscriber until they hiked the price again).

I’m not super worried about them banning me (from a probability standpoint). But it would be highly disruptive to my life if they did. So from the general principal of not keeping too many eggs in one basket, I have already started disconnecting other non-Google accounts from my gmail address.

Thank you for the tips and suggestions! I have already started the process and thankfully, I do use Bitwarden and it does indeed make filtering the accounts easier.

I’m glad I almost never use federated accounts for logins. I understand the convenience and security of using them, so I’m not against them in concept…but then there’s the putting too many eggs in one basket risk with doing it.

Even though pi hole doesn’t work with YouTube ads, I highly recommend trying it out. It’s a really nice “always on” layer of protection that blocks a lot of trackers and shit, and if you set it up correctly it does it for your whole home network. When people come to my house and surf the web on their phones & tablets, they’re amazed how much better the experience is without constant obnoxious ads popping up all over the pages. Pi Hole by itself is not sufficient security but it’s a nice layer to add to add to whatever else you’re using.

This sucks, I have a LOT of online accounts that use that email as the login email (not federated, just as the login) and it’s going to be a giant PITA to change them all. Thanks, Google.

I have heard of them banning people from YouTube over this, but I have not heard of them banning them from all of their other Google services. I’m not saying you’re lying here, just saying I personally have not seen any reports on this (but I have seen reports of YouTube-only bans).

I pay for Drive and have a ton of shit on there, and I use gmail as my primary email (not my only email) for a lot of logins and such. My plan is to just stop using YouTube, they better not ban my whole account because I use an ad blocker.

The really frustrating thing for me was I was paying for YouTube Premium until they jacked the price up AGAIN and then I was like nope, I’m out. I can live just fine without YouTube and its horrible ads.

I’m trying piped and invidious for now, but I like where you’re going with this. It’s a good opportunity to kick my stupid youtube habit.