YouTube Is Spying On Us

[mudwhistle]

The other day I mentioned Andrew Dice Clay once in a thread here on USMB, and when I opened up the YouTube site, the 3rd video that popped up was about Andrew Dice Clay.

YouTube doesn't just take your preferences and your subscriptions into consideration, but they track your surfing habits and try to provide you with videos that have something to do with what you've been looking at in the last couple of hours by accessing your history.

I didn't click on the video so it didn't show up again, but anything you look at or talk about here will probably show up YouTube.

One thing that's extremely hard to find on YouTube is videos that criticize Biden simply by doing a search. You cannot find negative news about Biden when you search for it. It will sometimes pop up because you looked at a similar content on Twitter. But never if you do a search.

Try it. See if you can get YouTube to trigger and show you what you're looking at on another site.

Why YouTube Is Facing a Criminal Complaint for 'Spying' on Users

A privacy consultant has alleged that YouTube has violated Ireland's computer abuse law by detecting ad blockers on users' computers.

www.gadgets360.com

 

[JackOfNoTrades]

View attachment 961167

The other day I mentioned Andrew Dice Clay once in a thread here on USMB, and when I opened up the YouTube site, the 3rd video that popped up was about Andrew Dice Clay.

YouTube doesn't just take your preferences and your subscriptions into consideration, but they track your surfing habits and try to provide you with videos that have something to do with what you've been looking at in the last couple of hours by accessing your history.

I didn't click on the video so it didn't show up again, but anything you look at or talk about here will probably show up YouTube.

One thing that's extremely hard to find on YouTube is videos that criticize Biden simply by doing a search. You cannot find negative news about Biden when you search for it. It will sometimes pop up because you looked at a similar content on Twitter. But never if you do a search.

Try it. See if you can get YouTube to trigger and show you what you're looking at on another site.

Why YouTube Is Facing a Criminal Complaint for 'Spying' on Users

A privacy consultant has alleged that YouTube has violated Ireland's computer abuse law by detecting ad blockers on users' computers.

www.gadgets360.com

That's not spying..well in the literal sense.

That is AI deep learning adding your proclivities to its large language model and sending content that aligns with your views (could be direct, could be tangential).
You only have to click on a video once for it to be added.

Welcome to the 21st Century!

 

[mudwhistle]

That's not spying..well in the literal sense.

That is AI deep learning adding your proclivities to its large language model and sending content that aligns with your views (could be direct, could be tangential).
You only have to click on a video once for it to be added.

Welcome to the 21st Century!

It's spying.

When they can access your history on your browser....that's spying.

 

[JackOfNoTrades]

It's spying.

When they can access your history on your browser....that's spying.

Machine learning. You are doing all the work for them. The algorithm is just learning. If they can steal your passwords and credit card info and control your webcam, then it's spying.

 

[mudwhistle]

Machine learning. You are doing all the work for them. The algorithm is just learning. If they can steal your passwords and credit card info and control your webcam, then it's spying.

Wrong.

Looking at your history is spying.

It's one thing to have a database recording your account's video access.

Quite another if they're looking into your PC and accessing your history on other websites.

 

[odanny]

The other day I mentioned Andrew Dice Clay once in a thread here on USMB, and when I opened up the YouTube site, the 3rd video that popped up was about Andrew Dice Clay.

Something similar happened to me, I mentioned someone on here and then when I went to YouTube a video about that person was in my feed there. I knew immediately that Google was spying (they own YouTube)

 

[JackOfNoTrades]

Wrong.

Looking at your history is spying.

It's one thing to have a database recording your account's video access.

Quite another if they're looking into your PC and accessing your history on other websites.

Dude. I do this for a living.
Your clicks and looks of said videos and other content are helping the machine learning algorithm build a database model of content to target directly to you.
Spying is done explicitly without your knowledge. In this case, you (we) are helping the algorithms build the content list that they turn around and serve...right back to us.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

It's spying.

When they can access your history on your browser....that's spying.

How does youtube know about your post on this forum?

 

[mudwhistle]

Dude. I do this for a living.
Your clicks and looks of said videos and other content are helping the machine learning algorithm build a database model of content to target directly to you.
Spying is done explicitly without your knowledge. In this case, you (we) are helping the algorithms build the content list that they turn around and serve...right back to us.

You do it for a living and right now you should know better.

You assume that because of tricks you pulled to get people to allow you access without their knowledge is okay, but I don't.

 

[mudwhistle]

How does youtube know about your post on this forum?

By doing a search of your browser history.

 

[JackOfNoTrades]

You do it for a living and right now you should know better.

You assume that because of tricks you pulled to get people to allow you access without their knowledge is okay, but I don't.

I'm not passing judgement. I am simply telling you that YOU are helping them gather the information they are going to use to pipe the content right back to you.

Reality.

 

[JackOfNoTrades]

By doing a search of your browser history.

They can't search your browser history on your computer.
They CAN keep track of all of the searches that you do. That's how they build the lists and content to serve up to you.

 

[mudwhistle]

I'm not passing judgement. I am simply telling you that YOU are helping them gather the information they are going to use to pipe the content right back to you.

Reality.

The reality is it is fraud and an invasion of privacy.

 

[mudwhistle]

They can't search your browser history on your computer.
They CAN keep track of all of the searches that you do. That's how they build the lists and content to serve up to you.

Bull Shit.

It's not a coincidence that they are posting content that would only show up on the recorded history on your browser.

I looked at YouTube again a few mins ago.....and I was discussing here about Homosexual head coaches and owners, and guess what popped up on the 3rd video?

Transsexual content.

 

[JackOfNoTrades]

The reality is it is fraud and an invasion of privacy.

The reality is you are providing the information they are using and there are no clear laws governing the use of that data as of now.

 

[JackOfNoTrades]

Bull Shit.

It's not a coincidence that they are posting content that would only show up on the recorded history on your browser.

I looked at YouTube again a few mins ago.....and I was discussing here about Homosexual head coaches and owners, and guess what popped up on the 3rd video?

Transsexual content.

I'm gonna guess you've made searches that had tangentially to do with that content. Friend sent you a link to a video or a piece where you expressed outrage over the topic?
That's how they build the language model....and you are helping them to do it. Without even thinking about it.

 

[mudwhistle]

The reality is you are providing the information they are using and there are no clear laws governing the use of that data as of now.

So instead of arguing with me you need to maybe do something on your end, because "you do this all of the time".

If you stand by and let them get away with it, or don't act as a whistleblower, nothing that Big Tech is doing is going to be addressed.

Even if you know it's wrong.

If you're wondering how Obama was able to blackmail so many into following his directives, well this is one possible avenue he went to get what he wanted in government.
The FBI spies on Americans every day, illegally.
How do you think they're doing it?

This isn't Cuba or China. This is wrong, and you should know it.

 

[mudwhistle]

I'm gonna guess you've made searches that had tangentially to do with that content. Friend sent you a link to a video or a piece where you expressed outrage over the topic?
That's how they build the language model....and you are helping them to do it. Without even thinking about it.

A friend isn't sending me videos. They have some stuff on Facebook, but I rarely access videos from people on messenger. Nor do I look at Facebook much anymore.

 

[odanny]

I'm a Premium member of YouTube and that is, by far, my favorite streaming option, I always thought that since I bought a sunscription there that Google has the goods on me. I've not gone thru the effort to block any of their algo's but this thread reminds me that the same thing happened to me last week.

A discussion on this forum and there was no coincidence involved, the topic was about some obscure rock star that was being discussed here and that same rock star would have never happened to appear in my feed on YouTube unless they derived this information from a search here.

 

[MisterBeale]

It's spying.

When they can access your history on your browser....that's spying.

Just add blockers to your browser.

DuckDuck's Privacy Essentials and Privacy Badger pretty much eliminates all of that sort of tomfoolery. I don't have much of that going on here on my end. And they block all ads.

Some still gets through, but usually it is my own fault I think. I have a hunch Twitter is the biggest offender. I have to leave the site all the damn time to look at those tweets.

I found ad-block to be a bit too much resource heavy, while not preventing that sort of creeping.

I added DuckDuck's privacy essentials and Privacy Badger add-on's, and it stops most ads, and they have really easy functionality to turn off when web pages refuse to work if you have them on. Just one click to turn them off if the browser your using on sites refuses to let you read a page unless turn them off.

This site will work with privacy essentials on.

How to boost your browser's privacy with DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials

It's easy to enhance the security and privacy of your favorite web browser. Here's how.

www.zdnet.com

Introducing Badger Swarm: New Project Helps Privacy Badger Block Ever More Trackers

Today we are introducing Badger Swarm, a new tool for Privacy Badger that runs distributed Badger Sett scans in the cloud. Badger Swarm helps us continue updating and growing Privacy Badger’s tracker knowledge, as well as continue adding new ways of catching trackers. Thanks to continually...

www.eff.org

It's been so long, I don't remember if the badger is on or off. I believe it is on. I my settings reset everything I turn my machine off.