I write the transcript for Jimmy Fallon’s routine tonight about the Jimmy Kimmel suspension, and one of the things I typed was a reference to The Summer I Turned Pretty.
Not 20 minutes later, I got a notification from YouTube giving me a scene from that movie, and I don’t appreciate the fact that it appears to be spying on the SDMB, or that the SDMB appears to be sharing that level of detail with YouTube, especially considering that it’s probably owned by a Trump ally.
It’s not the SDMB directly that’s doing it; it’s local cookies being stored on your browser. When you go to YouTube, they are querying your browser to see what else you’ve looked at recently.
You can probably adjust cookie settings on your browser; alternately, browsers like DuckDuckGo operate on the premise that they don’t function that way, and are thus more “private.”
I would wager the o.p. is also using Chrome or another Chromium-based browser:
TechSpot: “Chromium browsers have been quietly sending user information to Google”
Stranger
Yeah, Chrome. Okay. Sorry I freaked out.
In my franchise thread, someone recommended a teleprompter which can be used with cell phone recordings. I clicked on the link. Ever since then my YouTube feed has been filled with ads for this specific teleprompter.
Chrome user.
Switch to Brave …you will still get the algorithm functioning on Youtube choices for things like shorts but you will get no Youtube ads. Nothing to install…
Not saying this is a good thing, but this is Google’s entire business model. They are an advertising empire, and over the decades they’ve bought up and consolidated a bunch of smaller ad companies (like DoubleClick and AdMeld) into a giant advertising network-of-networks that tracks you all across the Web, Android, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Home, etc. That isn’t an accident, but by design. They give you all this free shit in order to track you and sell your time to advertisers.
Being able to sell ads on YouTube based on a user’s browsing history is just one of the many, many, MANY intrusive advertising services they offer: from About targeting for Video campaigns - YouTube Help (emphasis mine):
Your data segments: Reach more viewers across YouTube and Google video partners based on their past interactions with your videos, video ads, or YouTube channel after linking your YouTube channel to your Google Ads account. You can also show ads to people who’ve interacted with your website or mobile app.
That’s Google’s whole “deal with the devil” with all of its users, except those who pay for YouTube Premium (even they still get tracked, they just don’t see ads on YouTube itself… but their behavior still influences the ads they see elsewhere).
The old adage applies here: If you’re not paying for the service, you’re the product, not the customer. Google makes money from their advertisers, not from you, and you’re just an “eyeball” to sell as “clicks”.
Chrome is only getting more intrusive and track-y over time, especially after 1) the antitrust lawsuit against Google did nothing; it wasn’t even a slap on the wrist for them and 2) Google is increasingly desperate because of AI competition threatening their ad empire and 3) they know they have a browser monopoly and control the majority of the web.
If ya don’t like it, luckily a good ad blocker can take care of most of that for you. Brave has one built-in, but Brave is still built on Chromium (which is a Google product, the same underlying component of Chrome), so it’s still affected by Google’s decisions. Firefox for now has better ad blocking (uBlock Origin, not the “Lite” version), which can do a more thorough job, especially if you turn on all the privacy-related filters. Unfortunately, Firefox is almost entirely funded by Google as well. Edge is also Chromium. Basically the entire web is Google unless you use Apple products (which have their own ad networks). So unless you’re willing to de-Google-ify yourself entirely (there are a lot of websites and videos discussing how to do that), they WILL track you everywhere, all the time. You won’t have any privacy, but at least you don’t have to see their annoying ads if you either pay for YouTube or just get a good ad blocker.
If you’re using another ad blocker, you should be able to add the EasyPrivacy list to it (if it’s not already there): https://easylist.to/
Maybe a good time to mention Nebula.tv? It’s a paid, ad-free, creator-owned-and-operated alternative to YouTube, and not part of the Google empire. They have far fewer videos/channels/creators, a worse UI, bugs, and a worthless recommendation algorithm… but at least it’s not Google?
I’ve subscribed to it for a year or so at a time, on and off, but never really found it worthwhile. YouTube is just better (for the viewer) in all regards except tracking and advertising. I want to support the content creators more, but Nebula is such a pain in various ways that I keep going back to YouTube (which I do pay for, personally… not as privacy-minded as some people).
But if your favorite channels are available there, and you really are concerned about privacy, that might be worth considering?
I use Edge.
Microsoft would never do anything dodgy!
Just think of how much worse it would be if ads weren’t targeted.
Thanks. I’ve downloaded Brave and set it to default.
The main downside of Brave is that don’t use the Google account structure that lets you have the same profile and password list on multiple computers. They also don’t have their own version that works the same way. Instead you have to use this method that is encrypted and it’s a mess.
The lesser downside in my opinion is all the Crypto and AI stuff you have to go in and turn off in the settings. (Though the Tor Private Browser mode is useful on some more popular news websites.)
I do suspect my priorities may be different than many of you.
My Brave has suddenly stopped opening links (from Google searches)
in a new tab, and I can’t find any way to switch it back. Has this
happened with yours ?
Cheers.
ETA: I think i’ve found it. in google account settings !
cant say specifically but lots of misbehaviour recently where clicking on links doesn’t workl and I’ve had to switch to Orion for SD as I will not upgrade my OS.