YouTube adds tracking parameters to shared URLs that can be traced back to individual Google accounts
https://nitter.net/OldRowSwig/status/1732112446943269347
https://nitter.net/OldRowSwig/status/1732112446943269347
One of us! One of us! Firefox is fucking amazing, just set up all the recommended extensions like ublock origin and privacy badger.
Mostly all extensions recommended by the community. However there is a recommended section on mozilla addons as well
I believe Spotify is doing something similar.
Would be nice if social networks and messengers would automatically strip these parameters.
Eventually I think sites will customize every URL for each user.
TikTok is quite sneaky. Sharing from their mobile app, you get:
https://www.tiktok.com/t/[9digitCode]/
Only by opening the URL in a browser will you see:
https://www.tiktok.com/@[user]/video/[19numerals]?_t=[alphanumericIdentifier]&_r=1
…which can be sanitized.
Here’s how they took it a step further too: YCombinator.
Same with Reddit, FB Messenger, Instagram, TikTok... Some of them are harder to spot, like how Reddit now goes reddit.com/r/example/s/8913y4h93
Would be nice if social networks and messengers would automatically strip these parameters.
I started using URLCheck on Android and SO MANY links have some kind of tracker that you can drop and not lose any functionality. Things like Signal (and even Lemmy/Mastodon) could do something similar and throw up a little warning when it encounters a known tracker, then offer to clean the URL for you.
Another advantage is that the clean URLs are a lot more descriptive
I'm using FairEmail on Android. When tapping a link, thr app detects tracking parameters and offers to remove them. I really like that feature and wish other apps would offer something similar.
For example, see the link in the post body here:
I was linking to a page where someone unknowingly used a link with a tracker, as an example of what I was talking about
Here's a screenshot if that's better
adding this list to uBlock Origin helps: https://github.com/DandelionSprout/adfilt/blob/master/LegitimateURLShortener.txt
That was the first place I noticed it, thought it was really smart of them, someone would send me a meme or whatever and it would show their account at the top. Was impressed that they generate so many links, now they can see who knows who so easily
Do people use the share button rather than just copy the URL from the address bar? Am I just really old?
Apps are legitimately great.
Except they are mostly just lobotomized websites where you can't copy the text or save media to your local device.
But it's blockable on websites. Firefox with ublock makes YouTube, Facebook, and instragam a relatively pleasant experience again.
And I know folks that have never lost money on crypto. Doesn't make crypto less of a risk.
Exactly. A website has to download ALL the HTML every time. Sure, it can put all that in a JavaScript file and cache it but it has to be built each time. With an app, you (the devs) get to choose what to load, and it’s just usually a few simple things each time instead of constantly running a script.
Using Lemmy as a web app really sucked. Having an actual app with actual integration to a robust UI works.
Plus as an app developer you get to go through the user's contacts and files. Having an actual app locks you and allows you to be the product the app owners sell. Nothing else and certainly nothing of value for 99% of the apps out there.
Apple does not allow this out of the box. You have to confirm for every permission. There is not automatic access to files.
An added benefit of the share button is that it generates a minified link – "https://youtu.be/abcde" instead of "https://youtube.com/watch?v=abcde". I find it neater.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/watch?v=abcde
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.
That is 100% wrong. Did you read the tweets or even look at a single YouTube URL?
youtube.com/watch?v=FOO&si=BAR would be shortened to just youtu.be/FOO?si=BAR
The link to other people’s account is in the &si=BAR part. Probably standing for “share ID” or “source ID”or something. The shortened link is just the same as the long one with watch?v=FOO being included in the URL instead of the parameters.
I always assume shortened links are viruses, at least that's what got ingrained in me from the yearly security IT lectures
I don't have a choice when using the app, though I have been removing the tracker from the URL.
Share is easier to do it at a specific time in the video.
Like, you can manually add the "t=x" at the end for seconds, but it's just easier to click the box to make the share button add it.
Right click on the video, there is an option to copy the video url at the time you want. As far as i can see it does not contain the account info.
Huh? That’s just wrong.
youtube.com/watch?v=FOO&si=BAR would be shortened to just youtu.be/FOO?si=BAR
The link to other people’s account is in the &si=BAR part. Probably standing for “share ID” or “source ID”or something. The shortened link is just the same as the long one with watch?v=FOO being included in the URL instead of the parameters.
They didn't until a few weeks/months ago on the web version. Not sure about mobile. I noticed when the generated links became twice as long.
If you're on Android use grayjay, if you're on Linux use freetube. You can follow channels on both of those.
If using grayjay and you can afford it please do pay for the license; you're not technically required; it's based on the honor system, but it helps the developers at FUTO work on it and it helps them donate to other FOSS projects.
If you use freetube please donate to them, even a dollar, the developers will greatly appreciate it.
Let's support software that doesn't hate us!
Don't know if any other browsers do it, but Firefox for desktop added an option when right clicking links to copy without URL tracker. I don't know if it works on yt links, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.
This extension will automatically remove tracking elements from URLs to help protect your privacy when browsing through the Internet.
Firefox:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/clearurls/
Chrome:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/clearurls/lckanjgmijmafbedllaakclkaicjfmnk/
Heads up, I had to remove this extension on my browser because some websites would get stuck in a redirect loop because it'd remove the tracking stuff it'd use in a redirect chain. Took me months to figure out what was causing it
I made a PWA that can quickly remove tracking variables called Link Cleaner. If you install it through Chrome or another Chromium browser on Android, it shows up as a share target, so you can share links to Link Cleaner and then share again to the intended target.
if i open a youtube link with a share id in newpipe, am I still ok, does it ignore the id? or do i need to delete the id first?