Invidio.us and g**gle
One reason to use invidious is to dodge google's collection of our data.
But in most cases, watching a video at invidious requires you to accept scripts from googlevideo.com
Is there a way to avoid (except for not using the service?
Or is this not alarming?
Since they do mistreat users, just stay away from them.
I don't access Google even if I were taking a tour outside China.
> But in most cases, watching a video at invidious requires you to accept scripts from googlevideo.com
> Is there a way to avoid (except for not using the service?
Yes - go to settings (it's the little "peace" icon in between the moon icon and the login button in the upper right-hand corner). Check the "Proxy Videos" box near the top of settings. You'll notice now in your statusbar that your streams are coming from invidio.us instead of from google.video.
The invidio.us developer, omarroth (a Trisquel forum member) has asked us not to abuse the proxy system, as you are now requiring his server to grab the videos and stream them to you, and obviously the more he streams, the more it costs him. If you like this feature, I would recommend donating to him at https://liberapay.com/omarroth
There are also Tor hidden service instances and onion instances listed at his github page: https://github.com/omarroth/invidious/wiki/Invidious-Instances
If you play around and try different onion instances, you can usually find one that streams well over the Tor browser in my experience.
Thanks for the instruction, explanation and recommendation.
What is the advantage of using Tor hidden services instances and onion instances? (And what is the difference between the two - I thought was the same).
> One reason to use invidious is to dodge google's collection of our
> data. But in most cases, watching a video at invidious requires you
> to accept scripts from googlevideo.com
Invidious does not use any third-party scripts. The connection to
googlevideo.com is to download the video. (Invidious is an "alternative
frontend" to YouTube, not an alternative backend.) My guess is that
whatever method you are using to block Javscript (NoScript?) is also
configured to block media, and the UI does not make it clear which is
which.
> Is there a way to avoid (except for not using the service? Or is this
> not alarming?
If you are okay with directly downloading videos from googlevideo.com as
long as you are not downloading any scripts, then no, this is not
alarming. If you would prefer the download to be proxied, you could use
a VPN, or as andyprough suggests you could use Invidious's proxy
function.
As noted, proxying the videos puts much more of a load on Invidious's
server. If you use Invidious heavily, it might be good to switch to an
instance other than the main one in order to help distribute the load
across all instances, or to run your own private instance, or to donate
to help fund operation of the main instance.
If I download a video directly from googlevideo.com can't google tell it's me?
Anyway, I would like to proxy through invidio.us for two reasons: 1) rising traffic on the server and the money to run it will hopefully lead to an expansion which will benefit others. 2) I wish my family members to meet 'services' related to google as little as possible in order to let them experience a google free (or minimised) digital life as much as possible.
(omarroth, if you read here, my donation will not come to you before December. Sorry)
But I would also really like to run an instance myself. Only, every time I have tried to learn how to set up a server, I have run into issues which I could not resolve. One reason is my lack of knowledge which keeps me from understanding the help, suggestions, instructions and recommendations I receive from e.g. you guys here on trisquel.
> If I download a video directly from googlevideo.com can't google tell
> it's me?
They can tell that someone is downloading the video from your IP
address, which may or may not be enough to identify you depending on how
easy it is to link you to your IP address (which for example, might be
easier if you are at home than at a cafe). This doesn't have anything
to do with any kind of tracking that is unique to Google. Any domain
you connect to while browsing can see your IP address. If you want that
level of privacy, you should probably use Tor or a VPN so that you IP
address is kept private in general.
> But I would also really like to run an instance myself. Only, every
> time I have tried to learn how to set up a server, I have run into
> issues which I could not resolve.
I have successfully set up an Invidious instance. The instructions are
in the README.[1] If you get stuck, let me know specifically where you
get stuck and I'll try to help clarify.
> Is there a way to avoid (except for not using the service?
You can add "&local=true" (without the quotation marks) to the video URL, e.g.
https://invidio.us/watch?v=blahblah
becomes
https://invidio.us/watch?v=blahblah&local=true
Or (better) use Tor and .onion instance:
http://axqzx4s6s54s32yentfqojs3x5i7faxza6xo3ehd4bzzsg2ii4fv2iid.onion/
You can read what is Tor and what is .onion on the web.
Is the download option for a video disabled for any of you?
I loaded various videos on the official instance, as well as on all the public instances, and either the download option is disabled or the page does not even load.
Why do you think this is?
> Is the download option for a video disabled for any of you?
I guess invidio.us has hit that critical mass where too many people are using it. I see that a number of public instances are shutting down or restricting service due to youtube restricting them - so I guess youtube has become aware of invidio.us and is taking action.
> I see that a number of public instances are shutting down or
> restricting service due to youtube restricting them - so I guess
> youtube has become aware of invidio.us and is taking action.
Maybe, but it is also possible that they are responding to particular
patterns of traffic, and that traffic from Invidious servers frequently
get flagged. The blocks seem to be temporary and intermittent.
How is your private instance doing? No problems? Maybe we should all be doing that.
> How is your private instance doing? No problems? Maybe we should all
> be doing that.
I installed it on a server running Trisquel and from my router assigned
it a static IP address. Invidious by default runs on port 3000, so
while connected to my local network I would go to
http://192.168.1.8:3000 to use Invidious. It performed noticeably
better than the main instance, even with proxying enabled by default
default. However, I wasn't using that server for anything else, so I
decided that it wasn't worth the electricity of leaving it on all the
time and shut it down.
I decided to instead install it on the desktop computer that I use
primarily as a media center and for automatic backups of my laptop over
my local network, since it's usually on all the time anyway. However,
that machine runs Hyperbola, and I was not able to get Invidious working
on it for Hyperbola reasons. When I get around to installing a
different distro on that machine I'll set up Invidious again.
> It performed noticeably better than the main instance, even with proxying enabled by default
default.
Did you use it just for yourself and your friends, or did you set it up as a public instance? And was there any privacy advantage to serving up videos to yourself?
> However,
that machine runs Hyperbola, and I was not able to get Invidious working on it for Hyperbola reasons.
I see, so hyperbola has been causing you real world problems. It's annoying when someone else's peculiar ideas about freedom interfere with me getting my work done. I understand the struggle.
> Did you use it just for yourself and your friends, or did you set it
> up as a public instance?
It was only accessible over my local network, so only I, my roommate,
and guests visiting our apartment could use it. My ISP blocks port 80,
which would make it awkward to run a public web server.
> And was there any privacy advantage to serving up videos to yourself?
I don't think so. I think the main advantages of running your own
instance are better performance for yourself and lightening the load on
other instances.
This public invidio.us instance from Finland is working for me right now for playing videos and downloading: https://invidious.snopyta.org/
andyprough:
> This public invidio.us instance from Finland is working for me right now for playing videos and downloading: https://invidious.snopyta.org/
The flagship invidio.us instance hasn't been working for some days, but this Finland instance is working for me right now. It has a message above the video that could explain what's been happening:
> Google currently rate limits IP addresses much faster, it could be that this instance wont work for some time.
> The flagship invidio.us instance hasn't been working
> for some days
How frequently have you tried to use it? It has occasionally not worked
for me, but usually has, and is working now. If you have had a
significantly different experience, perhaps it is a geoblocking issue/
As explained above, the NoScript addon also blocks media, which is exactly what one has to allow to run, both from "invidio.us" and "google". If you are using "proxy option" you don't have to allow from google. Yet, it only makes sense if you want to have an extra layer of privacy... for google, you are just an Invidious user. Given the hard time Invidious instances are facing, I suggest running Tor Browser and access invidio.us without using the proxy option. They will see it's a Tor user who is using Invidious, but nothing else.
I wish it would be easier to set it in my local machine (my own invidious instance running through Tor 9150 port).