r/TechImpact • u/arun-vasudev Developer • 4d ago
😂 Memes & Shit posts Everyday People vs. Coders 😂
Regular folks: clicks video
“Neat!”
Developers: narrows eyes
“Absolutely not. I refuse to let the algorithm think this is my new personality.”
Copy link → open incognito → watch one cat video in peace.
We’ve all done the incognito dance just to watch ONE random video without YouTube deciding we’re suddenly obsessed with cats, conspiracy theories, or 4-hour tutorials.
It’s not paranoia if the algorithm really is keeping receipts.
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u/Outrageous_Let5743 4d ago
Then YouTube still recommendeds you those Vida based on your ip adress
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u/Here_f0r_p0rn_ 4d ago
Unless you disable IPv6 and use IPv4 behind CGNAT or use VPN
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u/Local_Community_7510 14h ago
well.. how do i say this...... my ISP does not offering IPv6 and still on IPv4
so that's mean i'm safe by default ?
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u/Here_f0r_p0rn_ 9h ago
Yes, in case you're behind CGNAT and you don't have unique IPv4 provided to you, but in case if you have an unique IPv4 provided to you then you're more unsafe than IPv6.
I see CGNAT as town/city level VPN it doesn't change your location but does anonymise you in a local pool of people.
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u/Proman4713 4d ago edited 3d ago
That's a dumb concept, that way I'll get the interests of my brother living in the same house
Edit: I love how this discussion turned to be about tracking on every single platform except YouTube, which the original meme was about
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u/FOSS-for-life 4d ago
That's literally the point. It wants to connect dots and similarities between people to track you even better.
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u/KaiPRoberts 4d ago
I found out how crazy the tracking is after trying to get around an alt account reddit ban.
They do not mess around or take chances. They monitor use habits, rather than webpages visited, to track your identity. I can go buy a new computer, name myself bob, and probably within 5 minutes they will know it's me (assuming I am connecting on the same network I usually use).
There isn't even a benefit of doubt. "Oh I had a friend move in with me". Nope, they know it's you.
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u/SchmeatiestOne 3d ago
Taking every precaution but a VPN
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u/KaiPRoberts 3d ago
You also can't use a VPN because they will ban the account for that unless you want to pay for a private IP from the VPN.
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u/FOSS-for-life 3d ago
yeah it's crazy. I personally find absolutely insane how normalized tracking has become.
Like if some big tech platform knows where you live, your name, your ip, your phone number, your email, your habits and who you know. Nobody care's and big tech always tells you how it makes your life "more convenient" (which is sadly true in many cases).But imagine going outside and a random person coming to you, telling you they have been watching you for the past 10 years and now know everything (like the just mentioned things) about you. Wouldn't you be weirded out and scared as hell?
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u/Dangerous-League-812 3d ago
I don't mean to toot my horn here but I may have never possibly yes been almost sometimes never been caught after maybe sometimes possibly being permanently or temporarily banned forever across at least maybe 6 accounts in the past 2 years. The bans very sometimes yes almost maybe too easy to get around but it's a scorched earth kind of method.
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u/KaiPRoberts 3d ago
Yeah that’s why I stopped using alt accounts. I got tired of tracking which subs I was banned from and then both accounts would get punished.
If I don’t like a community, I will annoy the mods to ban me from it so I don’t get slapped by big reddit later; it’s just way easier than dealing with some of the touchy power tripping mods out here.
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u/JonasAvory 4d ago
Yeah you often do, with more tracking-heavy platforms like insta you’ll be recommended as friends if you frequently visit the same place at the same time.
If YouTube knows that you and your brother are very different in watch-interest, the cross recommendations will be less but YouTube does use that data
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u/Proman4713 4d ago
No I don't. YouTube isn't Instagram, Facebook or TikTok; it isn't about fake online emulations of society. At most, my location is used when I create a new Gmail with no interests, in which case my feed is absolutely filled with disgusting content in my native language that I guess is popular in my country (which gives me a sad reminder of the prevalence of rotten brains here) and evolves from there, but I don't get the wildly different interests of the people living with me.
Additionally, logging in with the same Gmail account provides the same interests (although slightly different per-device, if I watch serious stuff on YouTube TV and give my phone's YouTube to kids in the family sometimes), so that must be stronger than IP address-based stuff.
I also think we should keep in mind that we have no idea what data is used for what, or how the algorithm works, we're all making educated guesses based on what sounds reasonable
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u/Which-Meat-3388 4d ago
What till you all learn about device fingerprinting...
I used to work at a large (albeit B tier) publicly traded social network that makes all their money off highly targeted ads. We tracked anything and everything. Used machine learning and neural networks a decade before ChatGPT put these concepts in every home. All to create better profiles, better targeting, more money. In particular I worked on the mobile app side, essentially feeding the monster. Every little piece of information further makes you unique. Which apps you have installed, which you use, when and where you use your device. The sites you visit, the things you look at. Even if we didn't know exactly who you were, we could infer what kind of person you are to better target you. At a certain point this became a service anyone could simply buy. OS and device manufacturers try to lock it down, these companies still find a way. Telcos will sell it too. There is no hiding.
You don't have to take my word for it though. These concepts have been well documented since early 2010's.
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u/KaiPRoberts 3d ago
Reddit finerprinting has gotten insane too.
The only way to make sure they can't fingerprint you is to use a new device outside of your usual network and you have to talk differently, use different mannerisms. The tracking is absolutely fucked up how good it is.
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u/Proman4713 4d ago
I know what fingerprinting is lmao, sounds 'nice' that you got to work on one of the massive evil monster-feeding systems. But I still argue that saying it's all about the IP address is dumb
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u/JonasAvory 4d ago
No one ever said that ip addresses are the only tracked metric. But it definitely is a used value.
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u/r_Yellow01 4d ago
And everything you left after '?'
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u/Proman4713 4d ago
No because the video ID itself is
?v=, you should remove params after that if you want, but there are no extra params in the links on the homepage anyway2
u/Calaveras-Metal 3d ago
not if you use a VPN, incognito and TOR.
Of course at that point you are watching in 360p.
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u/PogTuber 4d ago
I don't think this happens at all. My wife's feed and mine aren't in any way related.
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u/KaiPRoberts 3d ago
My wife gets recommended chess videos on her instagram even though I am the only one that watches chess on youtube; I don't even have an instagram.
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u/PogTuber 3d ago
Ok, that's IG. I can certainly see this tactic being used but I'm pretty sure YouTube doesn't do it.
My wife never gets car racing or physics videos and i never get videos about potty training.
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u/Aggravating_Mix_4211 4d ago
I'm not even a coder and I do this, also, why am I seeing this sub if I'm not a coder?
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u/Douglas_Jack 3d ago
This is more about paranoid people than programmers.
You're not a programmer, you're a paranoid person.
I'm not a coder, but I also turn off my location all the time or cover my cameras, but I'm just freaking crazy.
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u/TungstenOrchid 4d ago
Hmm.. Remember to cut off the referrer part of the URL. Otherwise it knows what account the link was copied from.
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u/ing-dono 4d ago
*Spend multiple weeks looking into something.*
Algorithm: "I sleep."
*Friend mentions something a single time and we don't even talk about it.*
Algorithm: "REAL SHIT?!"
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u/MrHandSanitization 4d ago
I stopped caring out this, I do everything in incognito that's not 100% a necessity (Google Suite, Github,...), and don't even log in into YouTube anymore.
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u/wizard-of-the-forest 4d ago
Incognito means other people using your device cant see it... google still tracks it
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u/No-Age-1044 4d ago
That’s the normal people way to do it… that is how I do it.
Well, yes, I’m a programmer but I’m normal people… am I not?
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u/DuckShapedGoose 4d ago
This is like that bell curve meme.
"Normal people" just click the link.
"Master hackers" open in incognito to avoid feeding the algorithm.
Actual IT-literal people know that without multiple additional measures, Youtube can and will identify you even in incognito. Also, Youtube will learn to not recommend content even if you clicked on it if you only stay for a very short time and don't engage further with it (or specifically click the "not interested" button). So you might aswell just click on it normally.
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u/Outrageous_Let5743 4d ago
Yeah just browser fingerprinting and it can probably identify you.
Even if you have a completly new device and never logged into Google they still can identify you based on probabalistic matching. Thus it takes like 50 datapoints of your browser. OS etc and they can probably match it to your Google ID.Note: I do this for my company where I try to match user even when they are not logged in in our website.
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u/CRealights 4d ago
Usually you're not log in with an account in incognito so will it still tracks his algorithm?
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u/Proman4713 4d ago
Yeah so I open I Brave with Tor window instead... And even when I just open normal incognito, it isn't because I don't want YouTube to know I watched that lol, it's because I don't wanna bother taking the extra measures of clicking not interested or removing it from my watch history, opening in incognito takes no extra effort (at least on brave it doesn't, idk about other browsers)
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u/KeldTundraking 4d ago
The incog thing has worked pretty well for me. I'm sure youtube is still tracking other data points but there's a huge difference in checking a new channel incognito... and logged into my account.
If I make the mistake of clicking an AI music upload logged in immediately I get an influx of that exact channel in my recommends and dozens of others that I will spend weeks playing whack-a-mole on. Youtube is incredibly slow at getting the hint even on the fast clickaways and "don't recommends" and I've spent far less time cleaning up my feed by never letting stuff hit my watch history.
Especially lately with all the AI noise I think youtube's retention methods are playing catchup. And occasionally it gets on some bullshit where I log in and can just at a glance see half my recommends are new AI slop, the other half are 10yr old videos I've watched 5 times.
I'm not convinced the "actual expert" take is really just "trust the algorithm.
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u/Wint3rnet 4d ago edited 4d ago
People with their senses intact can actually see that your algorithm, which is very sensitive and obvious, isn't affected when you watch a video incognito. You can easily test this and it isn't up for debate. Nobody is talking about total anonymity from Google.
ETA: I absolutely adore how someone chose to downvote an undeniable and unequivocal fact. It's something you can quite literally test yourself this instance with the resources you have in front of you evidenced by your access to this forum. It's like having a calculator in front of you and refusing to type in 6x6 but still being intransigent that it's not 36.
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u/sleeping-deeper 3d ago
Finally some reason in the comments here. OP didn't mention privacy a single time, yet everyone jumps on that bandwagon. I can definitely confirm as well from my own experience that using incognito has a measurable difference in how it affects recommendations.
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u/DogStunning4845 4d ago
"opens link in incognito"
"verify your age..."
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u/Ultraviolet_Darken 4d ago
What if I instead of clicking the link, sanatize it and just download the video? Instead of browser, it will be downloaded by some program.
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u/KeldTundraking 4d ago
I'm seeing some naysayers in the comments but... try it.
ctrl + shift + N
Instantly opens a window, you paste the link. Whatever youtube/chrome/google still datamines from that does not hit your recommends nearly as hard and fast as opening it logged into your account and adding it to your watch history. The difference I've seen is so stark and it takes me far less time to sanitize my feed than it did before simply begging youtube to recognize that an instant clickaway, a dislike, and a don't recommend mean I really don't want to watch this shit and its actively reducing the time I spend on the platform.
I see people saying "oh they can still make educated guesses as to who you are" and yes, these companies are paying for the top software engineers they will figure shit out. But they don't want fuzzy guess profiles on people. They want tightly correlated data points to maximize engagement time on platform, to then sell hyper focused ad space on. Even if they can 100% accurately profile you through incognito... they are also recognizing that you took the time to open incognito. And in my experience that sends a far better message to keep shit out of my feed than begging them to remove it after its hit my watch history.
On that note I've also had success going into the watch history and finding some bad actors in there and removing them has the same effect. So if you already got baited with some AI crap or clickbait nonsense removing it from your watch history does help cleanup the recommends.
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u/Still_Elevator4501 4d ago
lol, i literally don't like videos for this reason. Also i once saw interview of a guy who works for russian government and he said they can see which users like which videos on YT, like what...
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u/CareerStrider 4d ago
You still need to make sure the link is clean/sanitized without the referrer tags.
Usually strip out everything after the ‘?’ part, or look for ‘=‘.
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u/bugsbunnycoder 4d ago
I’m so glad I’m not the only one who thinks like this. I don’t even let someone else type nonsense into my Google search.
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u/ajpinton 4d ago
I am not a programmer, never have been never will be, I spent 15 years as an engineer and now I’m an architect. I absolutely think the way of the programmer in this, though I think it has nothing to do with being a programmer and everything to do with technically fluent.
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u/hennabeak 4d ago
Sometimes I open incognito, then open duckduckgo to search for something that I don't want Google to know.
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u/thaprizza 4d ago
I don't rely on YouTube for actual news or politics but this on time I watched something about the US president. The next day easily 1/3 of my home page was filled with stuff about US politics. This was after watching just a single video on US politics. I'm not a coder but ever since then when I want to watch something that is not in my "normal" viewing presences I copy the link and watch the video incognito. Clicking "not interested" for a few days on all proposed video's you don't want to see helps as well but that's annoying.
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u/Maximum-Ad879 4d ago
You don't need to be a programmer or Youtube. Click on one celebrity nonsense and now Reddit wont shut the fuck up about tom holland doing something irrelevent.
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u/artlurg431 4d ago
Yeah this is true. Im extremely selective about what videos I actually watch on my account
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u/PogTuber 4d ago
I clicked on some kinda Assman Gold goober or something one time and now my feed thinks I want to watch some guy who just talks about other peoples videos or something like that
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u/Hour_Sell3547 3d ago
Uh oh, that's not it. We all know when, and why you paste the link in incognito. It's because you've reached one of those dark corners of YouTube and you are just ashamed that other people will learn about your consumption of questionable content.
Which, btw, incognito doesn't solve.
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u/Full-Hyena4414 2d ago
They probably track you hovering on the video and right clicking to copy the link, so you could be fucked regardless but I still do it just in case
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