Return YouTube Dislike is a privacy‑overreaching, intrusive, and increasingly untrustworthy extension. The recent update demanding broad data‑collection permissions is unacceptable, and the developer’s decisions make this add‑on something we cannot recommend to anyone.

The new permissions - and why they’re a problem
Firefox’s updated privacy labels reveal the true scope of what the extension can access:

Browsing activity - It can monitor when you navigate between videos.

Website content - It can read elements on YouTube pages.

Personally identifiable information - It uses a private user ID tied to your activity, even if “randomly generated.”

Online/activity data - It tracks likes/dislikes and viewing behavior.

The developer insists this is limited to YouTube and the extension’s own site, but the permission categories themselves are broad, and users must trust that the extension never expands its scope. Trust is earned and this project has repeatedly damaged that trust.

Why you should not use it
It requires powerful permissions that allow reading and modifying data on YouTube a major privacy risk for an extension maintained by a single developer.

It has already introduced intrusive pop‑ups, which many users mistook for malware.

Firefox’s new labels expose how much data it touches, and even if anonymized, the extension still collects and sends user interaction data to its servers.

Backend code is not fully open‑source, meaning users cannot audit what happens to their data once it leaves their browser.

The Google Team

New permissions are horrible, personal information?

Works as intended.

At the time of writing the extension is being bombarded by negative reviews. Let me copy and paste the explanation as to why the extension requires what APPEARS to the user to be personally identifying info:

RYD hasn’t changed how it handles your data. What changed is how Mozilla labels these permissions - not what the extension does with your data.

The extension only uses the data it needs to show dislikes and count votes.

Its site permissions cover YouTube and its own API at returnyoutubedislikeapi.com. RYD doesn’t read other websites, and these site permissions cannot be used to access them.

Personally identifiable information - RYD’s randomly generated, persistent user ID, used to count votes. This isn’t your Google or YouTube account. Our server also sees your IP address when you connect.

Browsing activity - opening the next YouTube video, so the extension can send its video ID and fetch the new dislike count.

Website content - things like the visible like count, which helps calculate dislike estimates.

Website activity - clicking Like or Dislike.

Again, this is about YouTube activity. The extension isn’t watching everything you do across the internet - it simply can’t do that with these site permissions.

The new labels sound scary, but they don’t give the extension access to more websites.

RYD is open source, so you can see how it works: https(://)github(.)com(/)Anarios(/)return-youtube-dislike

End transmission.

Solicita Actividad de navegación e Información de identificación personal, elementos que previamente no solicitaba. Quiere vender tu información.

You do not need any "IDENTIFIABLE" information.
You do not need any "BROWSING HISTORY".

Why tf would you need all that to show dislikes.

Worked fine until now and now it need to harvest your data to function. F .... U

Non autorisée dans les fenêtres privées. Cette extension ne fonctionne pas en navigation privée.

Pourquoi??

Not allowed in private windows. This extension does not work in private browsing.

Why??


edit:

Vous ne répondez PAS à la question...Pourquoi FIREFOX n'autorise pas cette extension dans les fenêtres privées ?? C'est dommage je ne peut pas l'utiliser.


You are NOT answering the question...Why doesn't Firefox allow this extension in private windows? It's a shame I can't use it.

i just don't think you need allat

Works as intended. As for the "This requires new permissions". After taking a look all its doing is hashing your user name (so you cant dislike bomb as a single user) and grabs what page your viewing (so it knows how many dislikes there are). Otherwise this app can't function as intended. For those quickly disliking this is a firefox thing. Its good to be skeptical in these times but please use due diligence :)

Oh no, an extension requires information to do its job properly; everyone panic and start hoarding toilet rolls and bottled water!

2020's lunacy at its finest🤦🏻‍♂️

Nice update Dmitry, it's looking mighty fine. Sorry you have to suffer the deranged rantings of the masses, it's not like they got off their arses and made a similar extension themselves; ungrateful buggers.

Thanks man, much appreciated!

Te roba información y contraseñas de tus cuentas de Google. Para que el rusito hacker tenga que salir a aclararlo el log, es porque está hasta las pelotas!

Very dissapointed about the data collection. It's completely unnecessary.

Do we finally have an update? And it hasn’t even been three years...

alright I was initially frightened by the personal data consent request in the 4.0.6 update just like others have stated in recent reviews. i am NOT good at reading code, but even still i can view every single commit made for this update on the github. i completely understand why people are worried about this update, but reacting based on emotions isn't going to find the truth. check the github, read the code, check the security faq, and be willing to learn.

i do also want to say to the developer that your response to people's reviews has been, in my eyes, very unprofessional. even though i personally believe that you're in the right, it's still important to treat customers with respect. the security FAQ that explains this whole situation is only on the github. i believe it should be front and center in this extension page's about section. there might be less uninformed outcry if it were that much more visible.

aside from that though, the new features are excellent and i look forward to using it more. thanks again for both your effort and the github contributors

Thank god my data isn't getting stolen. I was scared there for a second before reading the recent reviews and the developer response

i, like many others, was confused about the new permissions and came here. then i took a look at the dev's replies and it all makes sense now

to other concerned folks: please read the dev's response to other reviews, and if you're still skeptical, the code is open-source, feel free to look yourself

I was concerned about the new permissions required, but scrolled down and saw a reply from the developer explaining what was going on. Everything collected is only related to YouTube and is anonymized, the same as what previous versions were doing. The only thing that changed was how Mozilla classifies permissions.

Thank you to the dev for the explanation!

With the latest update I recommend everybody flees this extension. They added further data collection that wasn't here before.

stop review bombing, it’s open-source. if you have a problem with the code, just show it.