Can you break the connection between YouTube and your google mail account?

[crypto]

@FoundWaldo

I’m still confused. You’re upset that it’s just redirecting through a youtube url in the process of logging in? That should take well under 1 second, and really not even be noticeable unless you’re staring at the address bar as it loads. I’m not clear on why this causes a problem. I do understand if you just are against the accounts being tied together on principle - that’s totally fine. But I’m not understanding if there’s some actual technical or functional problem here. It’s normally effectively invisible.

What I am telling you is that if this ever happened before, I never noticed it. It is now causing not only a noticeable delay when I log in, I also have to log in twice now and log out twice now.

It is strange.

I try to log into my gmail account, and after entering my password, url change, url change, back to login/password screen. WTF?

Same when I log out.

Logout… Url change, url change, back to gmail. Logout a second time, and then I am out.

This can’t be normal.

Even if I will never be able to unlink my secondary account, I shouldn’t have to log in twice, or logout twice.

I also NEVER use YouTube with my main gmail account. That account is my personal, private account, and I am very conscious of who I give it out to, and what I use it for. That is one of the reasons I have the secondary account in the first place.

Now, no matter what gmail account I log in with, I see the login.youtube url. If that is now part of the google/gmail experience, fine… But I don’t want it and I certainly don’t have to like it. I just need to adjust what I am doing, and what I am using gmail services for. And when.

As to WHY I log in and out, why is that relevant? This is GQ. I asked a question that I thought had a factual answer. If you must know my motives for why I want to do this, I need to know why my motives are necessary to fix this problem.

@Turble

People are telling you – you can not unlink them. Once you agree to their terms, you only have one google account for all the different services they provide. Every google search you make, every time you look at a map or navigate by GPS using google map, every document you create, every file you upload, every youtube video you watch, every gmail you send or receive, everything you do while logged in to any google service is all recorded under one account.

The only way around it would be to create a google account which you only use for youtube, another account which you only use for maps, another account for gmail, etc. If you have been selected for the “You must provide your real name and verifiable phone number” thing, even making separate accounts for each google service you use may not be possible.

It’s been mentioned that you can use something like Thunderbird to access gmail without logging in to google. That is how I do it.

Allowing google to gather and sell your personal data is the price you pay for their services you choose to use.

I was never selected for any google promotion that I am aware of. I have never given my phone number out, and I never will. That doesn’t mean they don’t have it though. I can find most people’s phone numbers with a quick search, so I assume google can do the same.

I do understand that google isn’t free, and they place conditions on using their services. What bothers me is how they seem to have taken every gmail account I have and are now routing it through youtube (and god knows what else they own). I don’t like being logged into youtube unless I specifically log into youtube.

I also don’t like having to type my password in twice, or logout twice from gmail to disengage from their services.

But that’s just me.

[dracoi]

@Stink Fish Pot

What I am telling you is that if this ever happened before, I never noticed it. It is now causing not only a noticeable delay when I log in, I also have to log in twice now and log out twice now.

Yeah, that is definitely not normal, and it’s why my thought was a damaged cookie or something that was causing Google Services to think you wanted one service when you’d requested a different one. I certainly don’t get that behavior on either of my Google accounts (one of which is a business Google Apps and the other is a personal GMail, though I’m not sure if those are still the terms Google would use for them.)

[Minni]

Uh actually I agree with GreenElf that Google is nefarious. I seem to remember having had the same experience as the O.P., so I seldom sign in to YouTube unless I really really have to communicate something, and even then its with a seldom used yahoo account, which I barely remember.

Furthemore, I’ve never created an account on WikiAnswers, although I wanted to, all because its somehow linked to the Google Cabal.

But the plot thickens, and here’s how:
I use Magic Jack as my phone service, paired with my DSL service, but unfortunately, MJ does not offer an option to list the Caller-ID listing in MyAccounts.
They only enable me to have the listing emailed to me. Thing is, I only use online mail, such as Yahoomail, and I refuse to have my CallerID listing emailed to a public online mail.

So I tried to resort to my DSL service for private email, and that’s where the problem lay.
Sure enough, nefarious Google even has their talons in my “supposedly” private DSL service, by linking their Gmail service to the DSL service. Apparently my DSL svc. doesn’t even offer the option of a private email address - because they’re linked to Google! It’s like everywhere you turn, you’re slapped with Google these days.

**In summary, because of Google’s corporate bully tactics:

(1) I don’t access Wiki Answers
(2) I seldom post on YouTube
(3) I can’t see my Caller ID listing in a semblance of privacy via my DSL svc.**

P.S. In case you’re wondering - why not a caller-ID phone? Well, I have a junky Caller-ID-phone in the kitchen, but not in the computer room where I have a better-quality [Non-ID] phone hooked more directly to the MJ dongle. When I tried setting it up ID via the kitchen phone, it failed to work. Besides, I have an answering machine hooked up to the computer room phone, so its not as if I desperately need ID, except in the case of crank callers. My phones are all corded to avoid EMFs.

[crypto]

I am thinking there are deeper issues here.

Privacy issues are important to me. I know various people have different levels of comfort vis-a-vis privacy, but for me, I like to keep as much information as private as possible.

I don’t know if this is unavoidable, to be honest, unless you have a seperate account for EVERYTHING, because between apple, google, youtube, and microsoft, it seems like everything is owned.

I am going to try a different approach.

Can anyone recommend to me a great browser that can run on an apple iPad (ios), like firefox? And if so, can you give me a specific name of the app? I just did a quick search un the app store (first firefox, then firefox for ipad) and I was swamped with results. I didn’t see one simple firefox icon that I was hoping for, that said “this is the firefox browser for iPad.” (Or something.). Their are a ton of free and fee-based browsers, all using firefox in their keyword list, I assume. If firefox doesn’t HAVE a browser for the ipad, fine. I would like some ideas on which way to go.

I will then remove Chrome (which is a damn shame, because I like a lot of Cheome’s features). BUT, I have used firefox in the past and liked it, so I am adaptable.

I cannot get rid of Safari, however I can stop using it.

I have discovered a few strange things on my iPad, but the strangest behavior is, ever since I deleted my cookies, cache, and history, instead of gmail logging me into youtube with just ine account, it now logs me into youtube with any gmail account I use (including a brand new one I created just this morning to test this). I don’t know, but I suspect, that apple and google are working together here, and that is why I want to try a new browser.

It used to be possible (at least as far as I know) that I could just use youtube relatively anonymously. I know it would know my ip address, and whatever was connected with that, but I wasn’t logged into youtube, nir was my email address connected in any way to youtube.

When I log out, it takes a good 5 seconds to get logged out of gmail, then youtube (youtube is now giving my browser a single line "logging out of youtube, please wait).

Unless I have a virus, I cannot see why google would use every gmail account I have and route me through youtube, unless they’ve changed their user agreement. That is possible, but even then, no one else seems to be experiencing the delays I am seeing, or the double log-in or double log-out.

When I go to youtube, and look at things, I am NOT logged in (at least not that I can tell). I don’t even have youtube window up.

I am going to try to delete the youtube app, clear everything out again, kill every webpage, and kill chrome, and see what is left.

Thanks for any help and ideas you may have.

[Saturn_Dreams]

@Stink Fish Pot

…Can anyone recommend to me a great browser that can run on an apple iPad (ios), like firefox? And if so, can you give me a specific name of the app? I just did a quick search un the app store (first firefox, then firefox for ipad) and I was swamped with results. I didn’t see one simple firefox icon that I was hoping for, that said “this is the firefox browser for iPad.” (Or something.). Their are a ton of free and fee-based browsers, all using firefox in their keyword list, I assume. If firefox doesn’t HAVE a browser for the ipad, fine. I would like some ideas on which way to go…

The official FF for iOS hasn’t been released yet. They have a beta version available, but they’re still working on it. And frankly, your problem isn’t your browser. I think you are misunderstanding how Google services work and you’re not accepting that. Which is fine of course, but no one is going to be able to help you push on a string.

I have discovered a few strange things on my iPad, but the strangest behavior is, ever since I deleted my cookies, cache, and history, instead of gmail logging me into youtube with just ine account, it now logs me into youtube with any gmail account I use (including a brand new one I created just this morning to test this). I don’t know, but I suspect, that apple and google are working together here, and that is why I want to try a new browser.

No, any Gmail account, new or old, will log you into YouTube. Apple and Google are rival companies and they are hardly plotting together just to thwart your attempts.

…When I go to youtube, and look at things, I am NOT logged in (at least not that I can tell). I don’t even have youtube window up.

I have no idea what this means. In any case, good luck with what you’re doing!

[crypto]

Saturn Dreams,

Thanks for the reply, including the FF update.

Actually, I do think I understand the way this is going to work… As long as I use google, it will log me into youtube. I don’t like it, but ok. And I also understand that Google is a business, so using their services is not free. I get that, too.

But what is happeneing now is not me trying to push a string.

For example, when I log into gmail from my laptop, or from work, I can now see that youtube is called. It happens so quickly that I never noticed it until I started having this problem on my ipad.

When I sign out, it signs me out of youtube as well,very quickly but it’s there.

On my ipad two things are happening that never happened before.

1. when I sign into gmail, it sometimes takes my information, looks like it logs me in, and takes me right back to the login screen again. Like I never typed the password, or typed the password incorrectly. When I type my password incorrectly, it tells me. So I am literally being asked to log in twice each time I try to access gmail.

Same with logging out.

I just logged out of my gmail account. It takes a good 5 seconds, and the browser will say “please wait…” While the top of the browser indicates I am at accounts.youtube.com

It then takes me right back to the gmail screen. Like I have never logged out. When I log out the second time, then the gmail connection closes.

This happens when I use safari and chrome.

That can’t be normal.

So either I have a virus on my ipad, which I haven’t been able to find anywhere yet on the web, or I have a gremlin that no one else has.

I have created a brand new google account, and when I log in with THAT account, I do not see a youtube redirect, nor do I have to log in or out twice. It works as I would expect.

So something is corrupted somewhere. I think.

[crypto]

Hi all,

For those following this thread, I thought I’d post an update of what I have found out.

This is not a unique problem. As usual, I am very late to the party.

Google as apparently been signing their gmail users into YouTube for years. Since I don’t upload videos, and logout of gmail when I am done using it, I never noticed. There have been occasions recently, however, where I left gmail open, searched on youtube for a specific video to help me fix my faucet and my riding mower, and I was pounded with targeted ads… Which was my first indication that something was different.

But I think what really made me notice was the significant (5 second or more) delay when logging out of my gmail account. It literally hangs, puts a “please wait” in my browser as it signs me out of youtube, THEN signs me out of gmail.

This seems to be tied to my latest update of my iPad ios software.

Not sure exactly what is going on or why, but from what I can tell, google has been doing this to me for years, and I never noticed it. I now notice it because of (I am guessing) the last ios update causes a significant delay in the transition.

Based on what I have read, Google has no intentions of unlinking the gmail and youtube accounts. They are using it for tracking purposes, and it is obviously working, because they are trying to link as many things as possible to build a database of information on every one of their users… Actually, it is incredible what they are doing (and already have done). As they continue to grow and purchase different companies, and link DB’s, the personal tracking capabilities will be incredible.

If/when Google and FB merge information, forget it.

If anyone knows anything about the ios update, the problems it caused, and any possible workarounds, please post them here (or send me a PM).

As to this question, the answer is “no. You cannot unlink gmail and youtube accounts.”