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I noticed fairly recently that YouTube has undeniably started tracking my watch history even though I've had watch and search history turned off forever, and it

by TillE 6y ago

I noticed fairly recently that YouTube has undeniably started tracking my watch history even though I've had watch and search history turned off forever, and it's still turned off with (apparently) no data in it. On the front page, there are constantly recommendations of videos which I have just watched (not liked, commented, only watched). Old, new, whatever. Videos which would be quite random if I hadn't just watched them. I stopped using Chrome a long time ago after similar observations of how it tracks usage. Good thing I don't really do anything sensitive with YouTube.

RL_Quine 6y ago
I have noticed the same using their app, which is the only place I can't easily block them from doing so.
whatch 6y ago
Recently I've disabled search and watch history, and home page content became very similar to the Trending tab in my country (i.e. pure garbage). Also I've lost ability to resume playback from last known position across devices, so had to turn watch history on back. And it made my home page great again.
- on_and_off 6y ago
  doesn't that make sense though ? If there is no watch history, not possible for google to make recommendations ? or am I missing something ?
  - whatch 6y ago
    It does. My point was that for me disabling history disabled _good_ recommendations based on my activity (and some other features), which is different from anecdotes in parent and sibling comments.
molticrystal 6y ago
Well Chrome does have an installation identifier that was/is transmitted only to google properties. That would explain the behavior you describe. Google says it is only for tracking experiments and tests, but I doubt even they know what everybody is doing with it, and perhaps you were a member of an experiment where they used it to track you. "Google tracks individual users per Chrome installation ID" [0] An article about it was here [1] Discussion on hackernews was here [2] [0] https://github.com/w3ctag/design-reviews/issues/467#issuecomment-581944600 https://github.com/w3ctag/design-reviews/issues/467#issuecom... [1] https://www.theregister.com/2020/02/05/google_chrome_id_numbers/ https://www.theregister.com/2020/02/05/google_chrome_id_numb... [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22239641 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22239641
- im3w1l 6y ago
  I use firefox and I see the same behavior with web&app activity turned off, and youtube history turned off. Personalized frontpage when I visit youtube normally. If I open incognito then I get unpersonalized. If I then login inside the incognito session, then I get the personalized recommendations again. This confirms that the recommendations are tied to the account.
temporallobe 6y ago
This is why I have started using incognito mode for anything I wouldn’t want to appear in my YT watch history because I have experienced the same thing. Better yet, use a private browser like Chromium-based Epic.

by TillE 6y ago

RL_Quine 6y ago

I have noticed the same using their app, which is the only place I can't easily block them from doing so.

whatch 6y ago

Recently I've disabled search and watch history, and home page content became very similar to the Trending tab in my country (i.e. pure garbage). Also I've lost ability to resume playback from last known position across devices, so had to turn watch history on back. And it made my home page great again.

on_and_off 6y ago
doesn't that make sense though ? If there is no watch history, not possible for google to make recommendations ? or am I missing something ?
- whatch 6y ago
  It does. My point was that for me disabling history disabled _good_ recommendations based on my activity (and some other features), which is different from anecdotes in parent and sibling comments.

molticrystal 6y ago

Well Chrome does have an installation identifier that was/is transmitted only to google properties. That would explain the behavior you describe. Google says it is only for tracking experiments and tests, but I doubt even they know what everybody is doing with it, and perhaps you were a member of an experiment where they used it to track you. "Google tracks individual users per Chrome installation ID" [0] An article about it was here [1] Discussion on hackernews was here [2] [0] https://github.com/w3ctag/design-reviews/issues/467#issuecomment-581944600 https://github.com/w3ctag/design-reviews/issues/467#issuecom... [1] https://www.theregister.com/2020/02/05/google_chrome_id_numbers/ https://www.theregister.com/2020/02/05/google_chrome_id_numb... [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22239641 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22239641

im3w1l 6y ago
I use firefox and I see the same behavior with web&app activity turned off, and youtube history turned off. Personalized frontpage when I visit youtube normally. If I open incognito then I get unpersonalized. If I then login inside the incognito session, then I get the personalized recommendations again. This confirms that the recommendations are tied to the account.

temporallobe 6y ago

This is why I have started using incognito mode for anything I wouldn’t want to appear in my YT watch history because I have experienced the same thing. Better yet, use a private browser like Chromium-based Epic.