• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Watched YouTube videos

John Connor

John Connor

Lifer
How on EARTH does YouTube know I watched a video? I don't log in, claer cookies and flash on exit, there is no cache and I'm using an add-on called Secret Agent with the option Send spoofed Etag headers. I even tried different IP addresses and wipe everything with Ccleaner and still Google knows I watched a video. I even tried two other browsers! This is very disconcerting.
 
They can pretty much always track you. Turning on a VPN connection will just mean that they create a profile for whoever is surfing the net at that time from that IP. They will look for similarities in their profiles and can link profiles that hit a match or near match.

It's next to impossible to not be tracked this day and age.
 
John Connor said:
How on EARTH does YouTube know I watched a video? I don't log in, claer cookies and flash on exit, there is no cache and I'm using an add-on called Secret Agent with the option Send spoofed Etag headers. I even tried different IP addresses and wipe everything with Ccleaner and still Google knows I watched a video. I even tried two other browsers! This is very disconcerting.
Click to expand...

Prism. You can't clear it.
 
lxskllr said:
How do you determine they know you've watched a video?
Click to expand...


Wish I knew. You click on a video, watch it, change IP address, clear cookies and everything and they still know you watched that video. It seems to be computer specific because the same videos I watched on one computer didn't show up as being watched on another computer. Maybe it's that dreaded cookieless cookie.
 
John Connor said:
Wish I knew. You click on a video, watch it, change IP address, clear cookies and everything and they still know you watched that video. It seems to be computer specific because the same videos I watched on one computer didn't show up as being watched on another computer. Maybe it's that dreaded cookieless cookie.
Click to expand...

What I mean, is how can *you* tell they know what videos you've watched? I'm not a big Youtube user, so maybe I've overlooked something, but I don't see any indication of past viewed videos.
 
Right above the video it says Watched.



YQy2nxo.jpg


Keep in mind that I don't have cache and cookies are deleted on a timer when not in use and all are cleared on Firefox exit.
 
Last edited:
Huh... I don't seem to have that. I currently have two Youtube tabs open, and opening a third to the home page doesn't give me that.
 
John Connor said:
Are you using Linux? And did you watch a video on the homepage?
Click to expand...

Yes, Debian. I watched one of the videos a couple days ago(Wrecking Ball Chat Roulette version(kinda funny)), and today I tried How To Fight a Baby(not so funny). Neither is marked as being watched in any way. I also checked Youtube on Midori browser.

My setup...

Iceweasel(Firefox)
Flash disabled
3rd party cookies blocked
NoScript with Google video services allowed
RequestPolicy same as above
Greasemonkey with Youtube Center
BetterPrivacy deletes all Flash settings on exit. Haven't closed the browser in a few days.
accessed through https via HTTPSEverywhere.
 
John Connor said:
Wish I knew. You click on a video, watch it, change IP address, clear cookies and everything and they still know you watched that video. It seems to be computer specific because the same videos I watched on one computer didn't show up as being watched on another computer. Maybe it's that dreaded cookieless cookie.
Click to expand...
I gave up a long time ago trying o figure that out and it really is not a huge deal to me.

But let me say I understood it as being like this....
Say you enter a dedicated server to play a game...
You leave the game and you proceed to clear cookies and history...etc...etc...

The real issue is not what you did...yet what you did Only affect your computer....
It does not affect anything on the dedicated server side....

I might be saying this in 2 simplistic of a manner...
 
lxskllr said:
Yes, Debian. I watched one of the videos a couple days ago(Wrecking Ball Chat Roulette version(kinda funny)), and today I tried How To Fight a Baby(not so funny). Neither is marked as being watched in any way. I also checked Youtube on Midori browser.

My setup...

Iceweasel(Firefox)
Flash disabled
3rd party cookies blocked
NoScript with Google video services allowed
RequestPolicy same as above
Greasemonkey with Youtube Center
BetterPrivacy deletes all Flash settings on exit. Haven't closed the browser in a few days.
accessed through https via HTTPSEverywhere.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't accept third part cookies either and use BetterPrivacy, NoScript and Self destructing cookies. It must be the fact your running Linux. I should try Linux and see if I get the same thing.
 
Hmm Im on a corp PC, cookies accepted, never log into youtube, was there this morning, on Win 7...I dont see a "watched" column.
 
John Connor said:
Wish I knew. You click on a video, watch it, change IP address, clear cookies and everything and they still know you watched that video. It seems to be computer specific because the same videos I watched on one computer didn't show up as being watched on another computer. Maybe it's that dreaded cookieless cookie.
Click to expand...

Tracking cookies don't just have to be regular cookies. They can also be flash cookies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_shared_object
 
Google spends millions of dollars attempting to track people, and they are always ahead of the game. Sometimes there are technologies that we do not even know that exist that are being used against us.
 
Well I don't get it. I tried a XP machine and a Win 7 machine in VMware and using 3 different Firefox's I couldn't replicate the watched video statues. Something is different on my laptop. But on my desktop it shows watched. It seems to be browser specific, but there's something else that is doing it too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top