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Honestly, this reply is well-written but detached from reality. Google uses your IP, fingerprinting, geolocation and more for personalization, at least if you'

Honestly, this reply is well-written but detached from reality. Google uses your IP, fingerprinting, geolocation and more for personalization, at least if you're not logged in. Anything else would be a huge surprise given Google's business model. There also seems to be correlation to previously used accounts if you mainly use YouTube without logging in, but use a Google account on the same device. I experience this myself and, despite always leaning towards psychological explanations in such cases, calling this a "conspiracy theory" seems very off. I mainly use YouTube in incognito and rarely log in, but I heavily use my Google account, dating back to 2006 or so. My YouTube suggestions when not logged in are "personalized", although I use YouTube almost exclusively in incognito mode. They are not personalized as aggresively as when I am logged in — since I mainly use YouTube in incognito, my suggestions when logged in tend to be very repetitious and boring. But there is definitely some personalization going on based on IP, geolocation and browser fingerprinting. > The big-media narrative on tech really isn't doing us any good. HN narratives tend to be similarly distorted, see any thread on environmental change, dependence on fossil fuels or advertising exponential economic growth based on burning fossil fuels and trashing other natural resources.

eurasiantiger 4y ago
Search YouTube in incognito mode for anything random and not connected to you. Keep scrolling. Observe how here and there are results unrelated to your search terms, but clearly aimed at you. They are discovering the user’s identity through UI events, such as scrolling and momentarily pausing to look at a video the user recognises. The identifier videos are sparse enough, and only one of them is on screen at a time, so the mechanism must get rather good resolution this way.
- moritzwarhier 4y ago
  I noticed the far-down personalized "related" videos already, and I am often hesitant to hover over some videos because sure, they also track user behavior. But the videos on the start page are already obviously personalized when I use YouTube without being logged in! I assume that there are many factors contributing to the "interest cohort" assigned to "anonymous" sessions. The idea of specific "identifier videos" is new to me, but it sounds reasonable to me that they do that. I still assume that Google is careful to limit and/or obfuscate the usage of data points that might be considered a GDPR violation. But I haven't studied their TOS or privacy laws enough to estimate where the line is even drawn and how blurry it can become when the user is forced to agree to the consent popup. For example, is correlating logged-out Google accounts using factors such as the IP address even a clear privacy law violation? Or is there some wiggle room to just use some "anonymized" (intentional scare quotes) form of that data? Obviously they make sure that you accept the consent popup before using the site at all when not logged in.

eurasiantiger 4y ago

Search YouTube in incognito mode for anything random and not connected to you. Keep scrolling. Observe how here and there are results unrelated to your search terms, but clearly aimed at you. They are discovering the user’s identity through UI events, such as scrolling and momentarily pausing to look at a video the user recognises. The identifier videos are sparse enough, and only one of them is on screen at a time, so the mechanism must get rather good resolution this way.

moritzwarhier 4y ago
I noticed the far-down personalized "related" videos already, and I am often hesitant to hover over some videos because sure, they also track user behavior. But the videos on the start page are already obviously personalized when I use YouTube without being logged in! I assume that there are many factors contributing to the "interest cohort" assigned to "anonymous" sessions. The idea of specific "identifier videos" is new to me, but it sounds reasonable to me that they do that. I still assume that Google is careful to limit and/or obfuscate the usage of data points that might be considered a GDPR violation. But I haven't studied their TOS or privacy laws enough to estimate where the line is even drawn and how blurry it can become when the user is forced to agree to the consent popup. For example, is correlating logged-out Google accounts using factors such as the IP address even a clear privacy law violation? Or is there some wiggle room to just use some "anonymized" (intentional scare quotes) form of that data? Obviously they make sure that you accept the consent popup before using the site at all when not logged in.