You REALLY should remove the tracking codes from Youtube links now.

[sanityinc@hachyderm.io]

@eggg @aesthr that's already the case if you use "share" from within the YouTube app or web interface itself: youtub dot be domain links with an opaque unique identifier.

[georgebaily@mastodon.social]

@aesthr eventually they want to kill the open URL completely

[annika@xoxo.zone]

@aesthr Agree that you should remove them before sharing!

uBlock Origin's "AdGuard/uBO – URL Tracking Protection" filter will remove them from links you click, if you want to save a step cleaning any links you _receive_. (Only works if you don't have the YT app, of course.)

[rania@freesewing.social]

@aesthr
I’m Rania from Gaza
We lost our home, and now my children and I are living in a fragile tent with no protection from the cold, heat, or insects.
My children suffer every day, and I am unable to provide their basic needs
Please don’t leave us alone. Any donation or share could help us survive 🤍
Help & donation link in bio.

[barryallen2023@mastodon.social]

@joknopp @aesthr This is the one I use and it's very good. The only hiccup is Facebook share links.

[risc@wetdry.world]

@sanityinc uh, no? the "share" feature in the web interface gives a https://youtu.be/<video ID>?si=<junk> link, at least in my case (not logged in).

@eggg @aesthr

[pa3weg@mastodon.social]

@aesthr Interesting how incredibly slow they are rolling this out. They've been doing this for months but I see these screenshots in peoples feeds every week showing it as new behaviour.

Either that or most people on here actually never get sent tracked links in the first place!

[slangc5326@mastodon.social]

@barryallen2023 @joknopp @aesthr FB share embeds their "who sent it" ID into the codes with no easy "?..."

I paste my share link into a non-logged-in mobile browser, get rid of the "[Name] sent you this blah blah" pop over, and THEN you can copy the plain URL.

I don't share FB content much. It adds 2 steps but I don't really want them to know I shared with X and Y IRL friends.

I see more platforms adopting this more invasive method in the surveillance-heavy future.

[larymir@chaos.social]

@aesthr there is a setting to keep YouTube from sharing your account with the person you're sending the link. This does not remove the tracking parameter, but should keep you from accidentally leaking your account, in case you forget to remove the tracking
In the YouTube app on Android: If you click on the share button you should see a popup with something like "sending as [your channel]", clicking on your channel should lead you to an explanation with a link to the setting to deactivate it

[glennseto@mastodon.social]

@aesthr Thanks for the heads-up! I've already been doing it as a matter of common courtesy, but this makes it even more pressing.

(Also, when sharing from the YT Music app, removing the "music." subdomain part from the URL makes the link more convenient to people who don't use the service and maybe have adblocking set up on regular YT.)

[larymir@chaos.social]

@aesthr I assume it's similar on iOS but I don't own one

(And the fact that you can deactivate it does not change the fact, that this is a shitty (and probably dangerous) feature and that making it opt-out (instead of opt-in) is a terrible decision!

And finding the right setting for the opt-out isn't trivial either, which obviously sucks)

[niko@social.nikopoikulainen.fi]

@batterpunts @aesthr It does.

[ryan@social.miyaku.media]

@sanityinc @eggg @aesthr fwiw, every youtu dot be link i see in the wild currently uses the opaque identifier for the global video id (sometimes with the tracking identifier after the question mark that you can strip in the same way). of course they could eventually start switching this to a slightly different opaque unique per-user identifier that looks similar to the video id and it would probably take people a while to notice, but they don’t seem to be doing it yet

[niko@social.nikopoikulainen.fi]

@aesthr I noticed maybe a week ago that Facebook does the same. Quite uncomfortable.

[janriemer@floss.social]

@eggg

> Like, eventually we may have to tell people "search for these terms" if we want to share things untracked

This won't be possible either, because apparently YT is frequently changing titles of videos (or rather give creators the option to do so).

Just insane!

@aesthr

[elronxenu@mastodon.cloud]

@aesthr Fukkkkk me

[eggg@hachyderm.io]

@janriemer @aesthr oh that's gross

[eggg@hachyderm.io]

@risc @sanityinc @aesthr sounds as though its already in a/b testing then

[risc@wetdry.world]

@eggg oh right, a/b.. would make sense ;w;

@sanityinc @aesthr

[bryce@mastodon.brycedixon.dev]

@joknopp @aesthr Better yet: YouTube ReVanced is a mod package that has dozens of options to make the app more usable. Being able to remove Shorts from all feeds and search results (and the Shorts button entirely) has been fantastic.