Bring privacy to social media with LibRedirect

Private Viewing

© Photo by Dayne Topkin on Unsplash

© Photo by Dayne Topkin on Unsplash

Article from Issue 290/2025
Author(s):

The LibRedirect browser extension redirects YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, TikTok, and other services to alternative, privacy-friendly front ends.

In recent years, YouTube has evolved into a platform that offers both entertainment and countless educational and informative videos from all areas of life. Around 3.7 million new clips are added to YouTube every day. Large numbers of general IT and special Linux videos for every level of knowledge are also available on the platform.

But what looks like a great thing on the surface also has its downsides. In addition to the annoying ads, the fact is that YouTube links with your Google account causing an outflow of information that undermines your privacy. If you're wondering what kind of information is easily obtained from your browser, check out websites such as Device Info [1] or Am I Unique [2].

Of course, YouTube is not the only service that disregards privacy. Twitch, TikTok, Instagram, Imgur, Meet, and many other services also use information about you and your behavior online as hard currency. The privacy threat posed by these cloud-based platforms has sparked the development of alternative front ends – redirects that act as generic proxies between the server and your router at home.

[...]

Use Express-Checkout link below to read the full article (PDF).

Buy this article as PDF

Express-Checkout as PDF
Price $2.95
(incl. VAT)

Buy Linux Magazine

SINGLE ISSUES
 
SUBSCRIPTIONS
 
TABLET & SMARTPHONE APPS
Get it on Google Play

US / Canada

Get it on Google Play

UK / Australia

Related content

  • Tube Archivist

    Tube Archivist indexes videos or entire channels from YouTube in order to download them with the help of the yt-dlp tool.

  • Movgrab

    Video portals such as YouTube or Vimeo offer a wealth of curious and entertaining short films. If you want to enjoy them offline, a small tool called Movgrab can help.

  • Programmatically change YouTube metadata

    Instead of manually editing the metadata of YouTube movies, video craftsman Mike Schilli dips into YouTube’s API spell book and lets a script automatically do the work.

  • YouTube Players

    YouTube offers more than just funny kitten movies; you will also find more than 60 million music videos. With a native YouTube client for Linux, you can use this online jukebox as conveniently as your local music collection.

  • An open source, federated video sharing platform

    With PeerTube you can self-host your videos without the limitations embedded in YouTube and similar platforms.

comments powered by Disqus
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters

Support Our Work

Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

Learn More

News