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Consumer Products => Avast Secure Browser => Topic started by: CTWarmbrodt on October 13, 2023, 03:29:21 AM

Title: Would VPN Bypass Adblock Detection?
Post by: CTWarmbrodt on October 13, 2023, 03:29:21 AM
This actually started happening last night, but when I was browsing YouTube, I noticed that there was a popup stating that adblockers aren't allowed on the site (though I was able to exit out of said popup and view select videos without any issue). I know that this announcement was made a while back; and before I received this particular popup, I was using uBlock Origin, which certainly did its job. However, I don't know how long I would be able to keep this up.

After doing some research, I came across this website, (https://cybernews.com/best-ad-blockers/bypass-adblock-detection/) and it said that one of the best ways to do it is through a VPN with a built-in adblocker. I understand that Avast Secure Browser has a VPN feature, but would it really be able to bypass adblock detection, let alone YouTube's adblock detection? (I actually haven't upgraded to Premium, so I don't have VPN at the moment.) If anyone reading this has VPN included in their version of Avast Secure Browser and have been able to bypass YouTube's adblock detection, please let me know so that I may consider it.

Please, and thank you!
Title: Re: Would VPN Bypass Adblock Detection?
Post by: DavidR on October 13, 2023, 12:00:42 PM
This is my considered opinion and I don't know if this is 100% accurate.

Ad Blockers, regardless if they are run within a VPN are still going to try to block Ads.

YouTube (owned by Google, if I remember correctly) has become more aggressive and determined to block the blockers, so your going to bump into this regardless of how you connect.
You are still connecting to YouTube and your Ad Blocker is still going to try and block ads and YouTube is going to try and circumvent them.  Many Ad Blockers have actually had to modify their actions not to block YouTube or possibly face action against them.

Just my thoughts here - I'm not personally against this, but I feel the the monthly price of YouTube Premium to be too expensive for the casual (and older) YouTube user, so put up with the ads.  If that was more reasonable for light users, etc. I think they would have more takers. e.g. 20% of something is better than 100% of nothing.
Title: Re: Would VPN Bypass Adblock Detection?
Post by: CTWarmbrodt on October 13, 2023, 01:17:00 PM
I see. Well, it's a good thing I asked before jumping the gun, then. Still, is there any way to get any adblocker to bypass the whole "adblock detection" thing, so that I won't have to deal with that particular "adblock detected" popup? I know that one could disable JavaScript; and I actually tried that, but it kinda crashed the site a bit.
Title: Re: Would VPN Bypass Adblock Detection?
Post by: DavidR on October 13, 2023, 03:15:50 PM
I'm not aware of any. 
The problem for the most part isn't going to go away.  AdBlockers might change but so too is the means of detecting and blocking them.

Google has deep pockets and is likely to outstay the AdBlockers changes.  I think I recall an article where certain ad blocker apps signed up to 'not' blocking ads on YouTube.

If your a heavy user of YouTube then you might be better off (literally) getting the YouTube Premium subscription rather than pay for a VPN.
Title: Re: Would VPN Bypass Adblock Detection?
Post by: ondrejz on October 13, 2023, 03:43:13 PM
Hi guys,

DavidR described it very well. Thank you David.

We have a strict blocking feature in the PrivacyGuard (Adblock) which is able to block ads on YouTube.
YouTube is now testing this Adblocker detection. We cannot reproduce it easily but we already have some reports that it's happening. Hard to say we can do anything with it :-/. Definitely using VPN will not help going forward. Maybe it may postpone it a bit but not solve.
Title: Re: Would VPN Bypass Adblock Detection?
Post by: DavidR on October 13, 2023, 07:42:31 PM
You're welcome, I'm glad it isn't totally incorrect or off the wall.

More of a war of attrition.
Title: Re: Would VPN Bypass Adblock Detection?
Post by: CTWarmbrodt on October 14, 2023, 02:50:23 AM
Never mind, I actually found an "undetectable adblocker" on Chrome. And it's working so far!
Title: Re: Would VPN Bypass Adblock Detection?
Post by: DavidR on October 14, 2023, 10:30:20 AM
Never mind, I actually found an "undetectable adblocker" on Chrome. And it's working so far!

That's strange, given Chrome is a Google produce and presumably would have come from the Google Play store.