Proxtube is a highly popular extension for Google Chrome and Firefox that can bypass country related restrictions on YouTube. YouTube can block videos in some countries, for instance due to insufficient publication rights. People connecting from those countries get an error message when they try to access the YouTube video, while people from other countries can watch the video just fine.

Proxtube uses proxy servers in countries without restrictions to provide unlimited access to all YouTube videos. This was not that expensive until recently as the proxy server was only needed to establish the connection and not to stream the requested video. A change by Google and YouTube however changed that, which meant that Proxtube suddenly had to stream the videos as well.

Costs seem to have blown out of proportion, and a solution was implemented to cover the costs that is certainly going to irritate a lot of users. The functionality of FoxyDeal has been integrated into Proxtube.

The new code displays a bar at the top of shopping sites, Amazon for instance, that checks the price of the item on the shopping site against a database to inform users if the item is available for a cheaper price on other shopping sites.

The problem here is that users had no say in the decision, and that they have not been informed about the change either. Users on Reddit noticed that all sites that you visit in the browser are submitted to a Foxydeal server. While that does not necessarily mean that all moves are tracked by the company, it most certainly raises questions as to why that is necessary.

It seems that only the latest Chrome extension is affected by the change, yet. It is however likely that the Firefox extension will make use of the system sooner than later as well.

If you do not like the ad injection or the change of being tracked, I'd suggest you uninstall the extension in your browser and switch to the equally capable ProxMate extension for Firefox or Google Chrome instead or these VPN add-ons for Firefox or Chrome.

To uninstall the extension load chrome://extensions/ in the Chrome browser and click on the trashcan icon next to the Proxtube extension listing. You can alternatively click on the settings button at the top right, and select Tools > Extensions from the menu to get there.

Firefox users need to enter about:addons in the address bar and click on the remove button next to the Proxtube listing to remove it. It is alternatively possible to go to that page by clicking on Firefox > Addons in the menu.

Summary Article Name Warning: Proxtube extension injects ads Author Martin Brinkmann Publisher Ghacks Technology News Logo

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