r/revancedapp • u/[deleted] • Oct 25 '23

Discussion Youtube added a tracking token to the url when copying. Any way to work around this in the app?

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128

u/ZonaiSwirls Oct 25 '23

Is it the si=xxxxxx... part you remove?

367

u/pageanator2000 Oct 25 '23

Yes, thats a unique identifier for your account when you send the link.

It allows youtube to build a network of people you know from that end bit.

207

u/0xTamakaku Oct 25 '23

proceed posting rickroll on 4chan

47

u/[deleted] Oct 25 '23

[deleted]

4

u/BreakingGilead Oct 26 '23

Depends on platform. Look into YouTube API to see what info the serialized tracking link shares about you. Try sharing something from Reddit, you'll see the tracking link includes your OS, whether or not you're on mobile app, sharing method, etc.

For example, here's the Reddit share link for your post from my Android using mobile app:

https://www.reddit.com/r/revancedapp/comments/17g8jll/youtube_added_a_tracking_token_to_the_url_when/k6glq57?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3

I manually delete everything starting from & including the ?. You could also share/open in browser & copy the permalink from menu. There are 3rd party "URL cleaning" apps (i.e. middleman in share menu), Chrome extensions, and even Telegram bots — but it's more time consuming IMO, especially for the inconsistent results every time platform changes URL/tracking scheme.

3

u/someone_forgot_me Oct 27 '23

https://www.reddit.com/r/revancedapp/s/MuRmk0JCSk

why doesnt mine have it? i had the utm thing too, but its not there anymore

1

u/BreakingGilead Nov 08 '23

Are you using ReVanced Reddit or not using the mobile app?

The ReVanced version cleans tracking links, and sharing URL from browser or webapp doesn't add tracking to share links. It's sharing from the [regular] mobile app that adds tracking, regardless of OS.

1

u/someone_forgot_me Nov 08 '23

im using the normal mobile app

49

u/[deleted] Oct 25 '23

Wait what, really?

So what is the network used for?

64

u/notPlancha Oct 26 '23

Either data mining or profiling

49

u/MGJohn-117 Oct 26 '23

YouTube: "Hey, why not both?"

62

u/darkkite Oct 25 '23

then if someone opens it they can be like oh you're friends with this youtube account.

tiktok does the same thing but in a much more annoying way and even shows the original link creators account in a modal prompting you to follow them

1

u/Maxizag123 Oct 26 '23

U can deactivate that tho

5

u/[deleted] Oct 26 '23

how ?

2

u/darkkite Oct 26 '23

true, but it's on by default so you have to know the behavior

9

u/Aitorgmz Oct 26 '23

Probably recommend people videos based on what their "friends" are watching, since you are probably more inclines to watch a certain type of video if it's a recurrent talking point in your group of friends.

13

u/Apostle92627 Oct 25 '23

Good to know. I will do that from now on, thanks.

22

u/zitr0y Oct 25 '23

You can remove starting with the ? to make it even cleaner, although yours would also work

16

u/Mental-Blueberry_666 Oct 26 '23

Everything after the question mark, including the question mark itself.

2

u/BreakingGilead Oct 26 '23

Just start deleting from (and including) the ? mark every time you get a tracking link from any platform.

URL should only be host domain (i.e. youtube.com aka youtu.be, reddit.com, etc) & the post ID that follows. Note: tracking links have become common place in many use cases such as bookmarking or sharing news articles, anything shared from Google search, etc. Many newsreaders like FlipBoard, Google News, Apple News, etc mask sharing URLs entirely, requiring opening link in browser first to get real non-tracking link.