I know the prevailing sentiment for a long time in the privacy community has been “DAE Youtube bad?” though I have always thought that it is kinda overblown. Besides, I am using Firefox which is supposed to isolate tabs so they can’t speak to each other, so I felt a small amount safer using Youtube.

You can take my post with a grain of salt since all I have are anecdotes, but can anyone else confirm encountering creepiness similar to my experiences:

-Typing anything in another window that is not my browser, sometimes these words seem like they get picked up by the Youtube suggestion algo and then boom, I get suggested videos based off of those keywords. Recent example, I was copypasting the words “trans” and “talking” over and over for some nerd spreadsheet I am making (read: not transgender purposes) and what do you know, transgender videos about “How to change your voice” start popping up in my feed. Please know I have zero interest in transgender politics/culture/anything, it is not something I have ever searched for or engaged in online. Possible that Youtube is reading my clipboard? Reading my keystrokes?

-Listening to an album via VLC, while Youtube is open in my browser. Suddenly, more tracks from that album start showing up in my suggested feed. Possible Youtube is reading the titles of other apps current open on my machine? (VLC changes its active title to the name of whatever file is currently open)

-Have a Discord channel open in another tab, people there start posting things I am uninterested in and don’t click on, but lo and behold, videos related to those things start appearing my feed. Tbh, I am the most jaded about Discord’s privacy security because there is probably a direct communications pipeline between the Discord and Youtube where they link accounts to each other, even creating shadow accounts similar to how Facebook does. So while not surprising… still at least a little bit creepy, yes?

  • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    Chances are you just are the same as someone else that happened to listen to the same music. Its the “algorithm” at work.

    First, check your browser fingerprint. Next, switch to invidious and don’t look back

    • LagrangePoint@lemmy.worldOP
      0·
      6 months ago

      Am I really being paranoid?

      Some context I’ll add to my main post in an edit: the only Youtube suggestions I get are music-related, since I use adblock+Youtube as my personal Spotify. It’s why I have Youtube open frequently despite knowing that it is not a great platform and it is also why any suggestions in my feed that are explicitly not music-related stick out like a sore thumb.

      • Syn_Attck@lemmy.today
        0·
        6 months ago

        No you’re not being paranoid its how it works. No browser isolates tabs like you’re talking about unless you use containers. Google owns the largest ad company on the internet, so any site that embeds their tracking scripts (most of the Western internet) will send the page you visited to Google, so they know what pages you’re going to, and highly likely use that information to inform the YouTube algorithm about you. Even if you have a tracker blocker installed, like unlock Origin, if you use Google they still know which link you clicked and what you searched.

      • PoliticallyIncorrect@lemm.ee
        0·
        6 months ago

        “They” will recommend you irrelevant shit cos it’s the way “they” manipulate public opinion, directing the people attention to what “they” want to, that’s why you see irrelevant shit, it’s not all about recommending you things based on the information “they” have about you.

        These platforms don’t make money just selling you stuff, “they” make money also directing your attention and manipulating it in the direction “they” want to.

        If “they” make 10 bucks for selling you physical shit, “they” make 1000 bucks selling ideological shit following their owners agenda.

        Maybe I am more paranoid than you haha…

        Going to the point: not all the shit mainstream social media algorithm shows you it’s about the information they have about you.

  • Melody Fwygon@lemmy.oneEnglish
    0·
    6 months ago

    I think I can explain some of the “inexplicable creepy” moments you mention here. Note that I’m not advocating for YouTube’s favor; I’m just explaining how things tend to work in general.

    1. Your spreadsheet seems to contain two key words or terms that are trending in the current year/week/month/day in your area. I wouldn’t be too creeped out about this, it’s just a lucky guess; Firefox cannot access your clipboard history, nor does it allow websites to do so. Furthermore websites cannot read your clipboard unless you have them focused as the active window and you click on a text field in that web page. Once again Firefox here is protecting you and most browsers behave the same way anyways. They don’t get data about clipboard contents at all until they’re focused. CAVEAT: If you were using Google Sheets or a spreadsheet application ONLINE that IS IN YOUR BROWSER then we have a different story. For sake of simplicity I assume you are using something like LibreOffice Calc or Microsoft Excel.

    2. Second verse, same as the first! Your musical tastes are probably highly similar to many people in your vicinity and Google is using that to suggest content to you. This can even get spookily accurate if it even only knows your gender and age range based on what you watch. RECOMMENDATION: Clear your Watch History and keep it Paused.

    3. Discord actually does load the video embed / information from the YouTube API. But unless you’re living in SF; this is not linking back to you unless you are clicking on those videos at all. However, if you are loading Discord in your Browser; YouTube might be able to make some weird fingerprinting connections. The solution is simple: Download Discord Desktop and install it…or if you don’t like Discord software you can always use Beeper ( https://www.beeper.com/ ) which is slightly more privacy preserving, but has limitations. Alternately you can isolate Discord tabs to a Private Window.

    • Lemongrab@lemmy.one
      0·
      6 months ago

      Or isolate discord with a tab container in Firefox. Invidious is still preferable though.

  • merde alors@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    6 months ago

    firefox doesn’t hide your ip.

    google/YouTube probably knows who is watching what from where and when unless you use tor or a vpn with a browser that leaves no traces, leaks no information (probably not the default firefox)

    but youtube in firefox having access to what you type on another app? i don’t think that’s possible