YouTube
I believe not for a second that you can be truly private having a YouTube channel. In fact I think people who claim to privately be paid by Google in any way should be ashamed. I am not a YouTuber and does not use Google myself but I assume they’d want all your secrets. The reason dealing with big tech platforms is something we usually don’t encourage is that they will sell your data. With this logic we can then conclude that people who gets paid by YouTube for ads are not private.
However! If you decided to disable ads and use fake information and use external donation links, you would still be fairly private. I mean then you wouldn’t have given up anything right? Anyways, I can’t help the people who insist on putting videos up on YouTube. They’re on their own since they made their decision.
This is mainly so you can understand what is going on, if you do not care for this, proceed to one of the other tabs.
What is APIs and Frontends
APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and frontends are critical components in web and application development. They work together to enable data exchange and interaction between different software components.
What is an API?
Definition and Purpose
An API is a set of rules and protocols that allows different applications to communicate with each other. It decides the methods and data formats that applications can use to request and exchange information. APIs serve as intermediaries, allowing developers to access and use functionalities or data from another service without needing to understand the complexities of how that service is working.
Types of APIs
- Web APIs: These are accessed over the internet using HTTP/HTTPS protocols. Common examples include REST (Representational State Transfer) and GraphQL.
- Library APIs: These are interfaces provided by programming libraries that allow developers to incorporate functions or methods directly into their applications.
- Operating System APIs: These enable applications to interact with the operating system, allowing them to use system features.
How APIs Work
APIs work through requests and responses:
- A client sends a request to the API, usually specifying the action to be performed, the required parameters, and the expected response format (often JSON or XML).
- The server processes this request, interacts with a database or another service as needed, and sends back a response.
- This response includes the requested data or a status message indicating the results of the action.
What is Frontend Development?
Definition and Role
The frontend refers to the client-side part of a web application that users interact with directly. It includes everything a user sees and experiences, such as the layout, design, buttons, and responsiveness. Frontend development involves using various technologies and frameworks to create this user interface (UI).
Key Technologies
- HTML (HyperText Markup Language): The standard language used to create the structure of web pages.
- CSS (Cascading Style Sheets): Used to style HTML elements, allowing developers to change colors, fonts, layouts, and overall visual aesthetics.
- JavaScript: A programming language that enables interactive features on web pages, such as dynamic updates, form submissions, and animations.
Frameworks and Libraries
Frontend development often employs frameworks and libraries to enhance development efficiency:
- React: A JavaScript library developed by Facebook for building user interfaces. It uses a component-based architecture to create reusable UI elements.
- Angular: A framework developed by Google that allows developers to create dynamic web applications with features like two-way data binding.
- Vue.js: A progressive framework for building user interfaces, known for its simplicity and ease of integration.
How Frontends and APIs Interact
The frontend communicates with APIs to retrieve and send data:
- When a user interacts with the UI (e.g., clicking a button), a request is sent to the API to fetch new data or perform an action.
- The API processes this request and sends a response back to the frontend, which updates the UI accordingly.
User Experience (UX) Design
A significant part of frontend development involves UX design, which focuses on creating intuitive and user-friendly interfaces. This can include layout design, color schemes, typography, and navigation elements to enhance the overall user experience.
The Relationship Between APIs and Frontends
APIs and frontends are interdependent:
- APIs provide the data and functionality needed by frontends to display and interact with users.
- Frontends present this data in a visually appealing manner, enhancing user engagement.
Example Workflow
- User Interaction: A user clicks on a “Submit” button on a webpage.
- API Call: The frontend sends a request to the API with the necessary data (e.g., a form submission).
- Data Processing: The API processes the request, interacts with a database if needed, and constructs a response.
- Response Handling: The API sends the response back to the frontend.
- UI Update: The frontend updates the display based on the response (e.g., confirming submission or showing error messages).
Invidious is an open-source frontend for YouTube that allows users to watch and interact with YouTube videos without having to engage with YouTube itself. There are absolutely no ads, tracking or data collection on Invidious. Watching on Invidious still allow you to read comments. With Invidious you maintain full control over your watching experience.
Backends
Clearnet Backends:
These are backends that can be accessed within a regular browser. This is what you would normally use.
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TOR Backends
These are backends that can be accessed on the TOR browser. These should never be accessed with Brave or Mullvad, only TOR.
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YouTube frontend apps provide you with an alternative to the YouTube app. Tubular which is what we will showcase here is a great option offers slightly different features compared to NewPipe but the primary idea is still the same. There are no ads, no tracking of your data and best of all, you are in control.
Tubular
This is our favorite frontend, for one reason: SponsorBlock. Tubular has the ability to skip sponsor segments and that is a fantastic feature. No more skipping ahead accidentally skipping too far. Anyways, there are also other features. Grab this app from F-Droid and after that lets dive in.
Initial Setup:
Post installation the first thing we want to do is setup our settings as we want them, I have some suggestions but keep in mind that these are my preferences. There is not right or wrong when it comes to settings for Tubular but I still want to highlight some that I really like.
When you first enter the app you are greeted with the “Live” feed, at the very top you will see four options. Option 1 is Live feed.option 2 is subscription feed where new content will pop up (We will get back to that). The third tab is who you are subscribed to and the last tab is for playlists.
On the upper left corner of the screen click the 3 lines and near the bottom find “Settings” then go into “Video and Audio”.
Video and Audio
In this tab we can set defaults, if you listen mostly set the “Default resolution” to 144p as this will make the video not have to load as much.
Our recommendations are the following:
- Set “Default resolution” to 720p60 or up if you watch a lot. 144p if you listen.
- Set “Default popup resolution” to your desired resolution.
- Enable “Show higher resolutions”.
- Scroll down and verify that “Preferred ‘open’ action’ is set to “Always ask”
- Disable “Autoplay” if desired.
- Enable “Resume playing” only if you primarily listen in headphones.
- Go back
History and cache (Optional)
If you decided to disable all of these options within this, the app would not remember anything anymore. Watch history, search history and resuming where you last were would be disabled. If you are very hardcore you might want to, but if you like a bit of convenience then you should keep them. If you want max physical privacy then disable (This isn’t truly necessary as it would only be people with physical access that can see what you watch).
After making your decision return back to settings.
SponsorBlock
This is where it gets fun, ad-blocking + sponsor skipping that is fucking amazing. We always have this on, I’d of course leave anything on because I am a fan of skipping sponsors. But take a look at it, this is purely optional.
Odysee is a decentralized platform that functions exactly like YouTube but without the ads, tracking and annoying always on a playlist when listening to music that YouTube runs with. Essentially a private version of YouTube. But this is completely separate from YouTube, people upload separately on there and that’s why we recommend it. This is the best option for privacy.
The only issue with this is that there isn’t many creators on there compared to YouTube.
