PSA: Google can track you on SaidIt if you open a page with an embedded YouTube video

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[–]WhoFlu 6 insightful - 4 fun6 insightful - 3 fun7 insightful - 4 fun -  (2 children)

Correct. I've been considering blocking embeds, or making them so you have to click first or enable embeds on a site I'm working on.

[–][deleted] 5 insightful - 4 fun5 insightful - 3 fun6 insightful - 4 fun -  (1 child)

making them so you have to click first

That's a pretty good idea! Just make sure there's a warning that spells out what happens, maybe with a link to learn more if you can't fit it all in a one-liner.

[–]WhoFlu 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

Sure, and an option to set them to auto-show, for people not super-concerned with privacy.

[–][deleted] 5 insightful - 4 fun5 insightful - 3 fun6 insightful - 4 fun -  (1 child)

Update: there's already a privacy control for this in preferences -> media -> Auto-Expand Media Previews? Set it to No, and you won't touch youtube unless you click to load an embedded player.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Cool, I didn't know that. My browser blocks trackers, so I don't really need to do that, but other folks might.

[–]iDontShift 4 insightful - 4 fun4 insightful - 3 fun5 insightful - 4 fun -  (2 children)

i'd say your fucked if you are using windows or mac

possibly linux

i'm using netbsd and can't even vouch for that because of the complexity, but feel good chance it is cleaner

[–][deleted] 5 insightful - 5 fun5 insightful - 4 fun6 insightful - 5 fun -  (1 child)

Yeah, the CIA/NSA have backdoors in both Windows and Mac.

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

Then push them down the back stairs.

[–][deleted] 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (7 children)

True. Maybe a YT post page should not have the embed showing by default, and require you to click the expando to show it, like on a sub's list of posts page (e.g. /s/all)

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (6 children)

I have a flood of naive questions about this, but these seem the best to start with.

Would it be (simply) possible to make a dedicated proxy server that strips the tracking stuff?

Would it be (simply) possible to make a script that YouTube-DL downloads the video then uploads it to Volun.Tube where an untracked version is mirrored (and archived)?

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (5 children)

Defeating YouTube is way beyond the scope of saidit, but...

Would it be (simply) possible to make a dedicated proxy server that strips the tracking stuff?

Yeah, until it got popular/widely used and they banned the proxy server ip

Would it be (simply) possible to make a script that YouTube-DL downloads the video then uploads it to Volun.Tube where an untracked version is mirrored (and archived)?

Sure. But doing this automatically for all video posts would get very expensive.

[–]Pis-dur 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

Does using Invidous solve that tracking problem?

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yes. saidit should put some effort into trying to support invidious sites better. saidit could even have an invidious instance and force youtube videos to be played from there. not sure about the internals of invidious but I doubt they are storing every video that was watched.

[–]JasonCarswell 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

Defeating YouTube is way beyond the scope of saidit, but...

Agreed.
Though the point is only to protect SaidIt users.
Ultimately the big question is if they want it and/or will support it.

Would it be (simply) possible to make a dedicated proxy server that strips the tracking stuff?

Yeah, until it got popular/widely used and they banned the proxy server ip

How long do you think would it take to burn through a proxy? That proxy could then be used for something else completely non-YouTube related.

Would it be (simply) possible to make a script that YouTube-DL downloads the video then uploads it to Volun.Tube where an untracked version is mirrored (and archived)?

Sure. But doing this automatically for all video posts would get very expensive.

I'm already manually trying (with meh consistency) to archive videos from the top of the front page. I have at least 10x 4tb drives full of just YouTube.

It would be nice to share this resource with other forums/communities too - but importantly, so they and/or hoarders can do it themselves - AND - if we could co-keep track of the videos (collaborate on lists of mirrors) so that nothing gets stomped out. Perhaps this might need a new kind of protocol and network or something - or rework something existing, like torrent with perhaps the list on a blockchain. Maybe this network would be better than just a dedicated Volun.Tube site that of course would be part of that network.

Sorry if this isn't clear, I'm in a rush as I just found out I have to drive again a couple hours to our off-grid prepper site today after all.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

How long do you think would it take to burn through a proxy?

1 person could use it for a year or 1000 people could use it for an hour. it all depends. and then youtube can release a change and wreck your whole this. it is not a robust design and shouldn't be done. all of the YouTube proxy sites failed and barely do anything anymore, because YT fought back.

[–]Tiwaking 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yeah, until it got popular/widely used and they banned the proxy server ip
I used to use NSFW YouTube a lot until it got banned. All you needed to do was put 'nsfw' in front of the youtube dot com link and you could watch videos marked as 'mature'. It has changed to YouTube NSFW now.

[–]Drewski 4 insightful - 3 fun4 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

The privacy redirect extension can redirect all Youtube videos through invidious or another Youtube proxy, including embeds. Also works for other privacy frontends such as teddit and nitter.

[–]Tiwaking 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

You can use the youtubensfw (previously nsfwyoutube) player to avoid this and bypass the NSFW warnings too.

https://youtubensfw.com/

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

Could SaidIt embed that instead of going directly to YouTube?

[–]Pis-dur 3 insightful - 3 fun3 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

I wonder if it happens when using an Invidious instance to view Youtube videos.