19
Front-ends vs. Browsers + Ad-blockers Does it make a difference? (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 days ago by Dark_Nebula@lemmy.world to c/degoogle@lemmy.ml
7 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Is there a privacy difference between using a YouTube front-end like NewPipe, LibreTube, or GrayJay vs using a browser like Brave or Firefox with ad blockers like uBlock Origin, SponsorBlock, and DeArrow?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] voxel@feddit.uk 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Software developer here, while I do not know everything about it, from what I observed and learned is following the case:

  • NewPipe has a component called NewPipe Extractor which is also used by most other opensource YT clients like LibreTube. From what I observed, it extracts the video URL for the stream without rly loading anything else of YouTube.
  • When you use YouTube in a browser, the entire YouTube page is loaded minus the content that has been blocked by Brave Shields, uBlock Origin or other utilities.

I think privacy and security wise there is not a lot if not at all a difference, as both take a best effort approach to limit YT's ads and tracking mechanisms.

The only real difference is if you log in via e.g. Grayjay and on the website directly. Grayjay will only use your token to authenticate while necessary and not share all kinds of data with YT, while the website stores your watch history, search history, etc.

this post was submitted on 23 May 2026
19 points (100.0% liked)

DeGoogle Yourself

16855 readers
930 users here now

A community for those that would like to get away from Google.

Here you may post anything related to DeGoogling, why we should do it or good software alternatives!

Rules

  1. Be respectful even in disagreement

  2. No advertising unless it is very relevent and justified. Do not do this excessively.

  3. No low value posts / memes. We or you need to learn, or discuss something.

Related communities

!privacyguides@lemmy.one !privacy@lemmy.ml !privatelife@lemmy.ml !linuxphones@lemmy.ml !fossdroid@social.fossware.space !fdroid@lemmy.ml

founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
CrypticCoffee@lemmy.ml
CrypticCoffee@lemm.ee
Byereddithellolemmy@lemmy.world
chevy9294@monero.town