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submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by LittleFellaNamedBoof@hexbear.net to c/chapotraphouse@hexbear.net

Youtube is apparently rolling out a new change where when you share a video link it will share you profile with whoever clicks it.

Video with info on it here(CW: Reactionary/fash stuff on screen at times): https://youtu.be/oFx46sqo8O0

Everyone should be aware of this especially when sharing to something like hexbear. It can break your anonymity without you even realizing.

CW to that video for all the hitlerite bullshit

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[-] LeeeroooyJeeenkiiins@hexbear.net 44 points 3 weeks ago

Oh my fucking god i was already annoyed at having to fix links because of privacy nerds getting mad about tracking referrals, now they are adding public doxxing too? great

[-] LittleFellaNamedBoof@hexbear.net 32 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah its crazy that they thought this was something people would want. Like it just pops up on the screen "Hey want to DM the person who sent you this?" basically

[-] WokePalpatine@hexbear.net 4 points 3 weeks ago

Never have I wanted to do that.

[-] Tabitha@hexbear.net 38 points 3 weeks ago

I think it would be worthwhile for lemmy to auto-remove and/or auto-reject is and si in you youtube URLs

[-] Johnny_Arson@hexbear.net 35 points 3 weeks ago

Luckily my youtube account is the same one that I just use to post archived ugene dabs memes

[-] MemesAreTheory@hexbear.net 18 points 3 weeks ago

Doing the Lord's workrat-salute-2

I miss comrade Dabs.

[-] kleeon@hexbear.net 30 points 3 weeks ago

I've already seen some people accidentally expose their real names because of this. Idk what kind of idiot thought this feature was a good idea

[-] Damarcusart@hexbear.net 14 points 3 weeks ago

The person who realised how much money they could make off of targeted advertising through it.

[-] InsidiousTrackers@hexbear.net 25 points 3 weeks ago
[-] LittleFellaNamedBoof@hexbear.net 18 points 3 weeks ago
[-] InsidiousTrackers@hexbear.net 23 points 3 weeks ago

they hated me because i spoke the truth

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[-] WhoIzDisIz@lemmy.today 22 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

On my Android phone, I use an app called URL Check, which makes it easy to sanitize links. I have it set as my default browser, and each time it lets you select which app to send it to once cleaned.

Website, in case you don't use F-Droid.

[-] LittleFellaNamedBoof@hexbear.net 18 points 3 weeks ago

Personally I fix it by just not having an account. FreeTube gets the job done and they can't track an account that doesn't exist.

[-] WhoIzDisIz@lemmy.today 12 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I don't rely on that because YT is often breaking the open clients, but anonymous browsers like Firefox Focus always work.

It's good to have options, and control - which URL Check gives you.

[-] LittleFellaNamedBoof@hexbear.net 15 points 3 weeks ago

I kind of like that it breaks sometimes. It's my signal to go do something more productive than watching youtube lol.

[-] Abracadaniel@hexbear.net 6 points 3 weeks ago

PipePipe is the new hotness btw. Its a fork of new pipe

[-] beanlover@hexbear.net 4 points 3 weeks ago

Can someone explain why there's 100 different forks of NewPipe? Isn't NewPipe the OG? Is there something wrong with it?

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[-] tactical_trans_karen@hexbear.net 4 points 3 weeks ago

Is that an independent browser?

[-] WhoIzDisIz@lemmy.today 9 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

No, from Mozilla itself. I use an app from F-Droid called FFUpdater to install it and keep it up to date without using the Google Play version.

[-] meowcar420@hexbear.net 3 points 3 weeks ago

How does FFUpdater work? Right now I'm using Aurora Store

[-] WhoIzDisIz@lemmy.today 3 points 3 weeks ago

FFUpdater grabs the install files directly from the builder's distribution site. For example, The current version of Focus is grabbed from https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/focus/releases/152.0.1/android/focus-152.0.1-android-arm64-v8a/focus-152.0.1.multi.android-arm64-v8a.apk

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[-] Le_Wokisme@hexbear.net 4 points 3 weeks ago

invidious often can't handle 1080p 2x speed and that's really annoying for all the molasses talking creators

[-] LittleFellaNamedBoof@hexbear.net 10 points 3 weeks ago

hey..........................there......................guys..........................hope .......................... your ..................... all ........................... having ............................ a .............................. good ............................... day ............................ today. ........................... In ........................... this ................................ video....

[-] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 5 points 3 weeks ago

The spiritual reincarnation of 1-900 numbers

[-] Grebgreb@hexbear.net 20 points 3 weeks ago

https://freetubeapp.io/

freetube should mitigate this and has other improvements too, at the cost of occasionally being broken by google.

[-] quarrk@hexbear.net 18 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

For all share links:

  • copy link
  • paste into incognito tab
  • go to expand the url
  • delete every unnecessary url parameter. For YouTube, all that is necessary is the v=abc123 to identify the video
[-] TankieTanuki@hexbear.net 17 points 3 weeks ago

I habitually remove query strings. They're only necessary in rare instances when they include a token or something.

Interestingly, I don't have the "channel visibility for shared links" option in my privacy settings.

[-] take_five_moments@hexbear.net 10 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

i didn't have the option on desktop but did on mobile app. switching the option on for mobile did nothing for the tracking link when clicking share on desktop.

[-] TankieTanuki@hexbear.net 7 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I've actually never clicked the share button. I always right click the video to copy the URL. I guess that was the right move.

[-] Le_Wokisme@hexbear.net 16 points 3 weeks ago

my broswer has a "copy without parameters" option in the context menu, and there's no reason for desktop users to ever use the "share" button.

[-] djsaskdja@reddthat.com 16 points 3 weeks ago

Spotify does this too I believe.

[-] LittleFellaNamedBoof@hexbear.net 24 points 3 weeks ago

I'm finding my choice to delete all accounts for any service and only use things that let me go without an email attached has been a very good choice. Why the fuck does spotify need a social network? It feels like we're approaching the day where grocery stores start posting your face next to all the stuff you bought on a big screen after checkout and announcing it to the store. It's not even a lack of privacy where companies and the govt want to see everything. They want the whole world to know everything you do.

[-] djsaskdja@reddthat.com 13 points 3 weeks ago

I self host this on my home server now for the exact reasons you’re talking about https://www.navidrome.org/

[-] LittleFellaNamedBoof@hexbear.net 9 points 3 weeks ago

I use mp3s and just use syncthing to keep them all synced between my devices.

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[-] Evilphd666@hexbear.net 16 points 3 weeks ago

The identifier is the ?is=xxxabc123 remove that.

[-] DragonBallZinn@hexbear.net 5 points 3 weeks ago

Yes. Anything past the question mark is not necessary

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[-] plinky@hexbear.net 12 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

welp, at least it's avoidable for now instead of being hashed inside identifier (it adds a tracker after a video link)

[-] SuperZutsuki@hexbear.net 15 points 3 weeks ago

Always use clean links! Although we should really be using tankie.tube anyway. If you want to share a youtube video, download it with yt-dlp and upload to tankie.tube.

[-] spectre@hexbear.net 5 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Somebody who is very cool and good should set up a page that can do it for you server-side

[-] LittleFellaNamedBoof@hexbear.net 14 points 3 weeks ago

but sadly all it takes is one moment of not thinking of it and someone posts a youtube link to Hexbear and doxxes their google account which is linked to their real identity usually. For a commie site where opsec matters that's a big concern.

[-] plinky@hexbear.net 7 points 3 weeks ago

always be privatemodemaxxing on social media, if clean-links extension is not working for (say) phone

[-] Enjoyer_of_Games@hexbear.net 10 points 3 weeks ago

@dessalines@lemmy.ml is this something that lemmy could automatically check for on post submission as a feature?

[-] dessalines@lemmy.ml 13 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

We're using a crate a community member created called clearurls to scrub all markdown fields and url type links of tracking params before even inserting them to the DB. It uses the ClearUrls data which is really popular.

It might already work for these links, but I don't know. Someone would need to test it on https://voyager.lemmy.ml/ . If it doesn't, we'd just need to check the clearurls data (I'm fairly positive they've accounted for this already a long time ago), and update the crate.

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[-] Erika3sis@hexbear.net 10 points 3 weeks ago

You might want to add a CW to that video for all the hitlerite bullshit you see on screen throughout

[-] LittleFellaNamedBoof@hexbear.net 8 points 3 weeks ago

I will add one I had listened to it without really looking oops

[-] userse31@hexbear.net 7 points 3 weeks ago

Yeah I noticed that "si=" parameter a few months back and wondered what the hell it was.

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this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2026
125 points (99.2% liked)

Chapotraphouse

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