this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2024
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Privacy

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It seems like YouTube have changed their link tracking to include more information (lemm.ee)
submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
17 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Up until like a year or two ago, YouTube links always used to be pretty clean. The format was youtube .com/watch?v=[video_ID]. A year or two ago, they started adding a tracking suffix on, so it would be youtube .com/watch?v=[video_ID] &si=[tracking_ID].

Over the last day or so, I've noticed links with a different format, youtube .com/watch?v=[video_ID]&pp=[tracking_ID] - only the pp= string is much longer than the si= string. This can only be because they're including more information in it. What that information is is anyone's guess.

This is basically a PSA to watch YouTube links more carefully, as people are by and large complacent with them (moreso than other links) and never even realised the si= change, let alone this new pp= change.

It could also be that the change to pp= is meant to circumvent communities, like this one, which automatically filter out the si= suffix. They may have decided to address that, then took the opportunity to make their tracking more severe.

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[–] [email protected] 71 points 6 days ago (1 children)

gotta chop off the pp

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Wasn’t their a Firefox plugin that did this? I recall a while ago to help do the same with Amazon but I never installed it and I don’t remember what it was called…

[–] [email protected] 17 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Firefox has "copy link without site tracking" built in now

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago

Doesn't work for &pp= yet, though. At least, it doesn't on ESR (and, by extension, Tor Browser and Mullvad Browser).

[–] Comexs 2 points 5 days ago

I think the extension you're talking about is ClearURL.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Lmfao, this community has automatically removed the si= suffix in my second link. But it didn't remove the pp= suffix....

Edit: Fixed, finally. It kept trying to convert my links all over the place. They're not meant to be links, just a clear description of the syntax.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Since a long time, out of respect for others, I only share YT videos like this: youtube,com/embed/[video_ID]

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)

respect for others

But also yourself. Like this you won't get grouped by Google with other people online.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I know, that is the idea

https://openuserjs.org/scripts/Kraust/Youtube_Embed_Redirect

Little script with few bytes, I installed it as extension. It redirect embedded when I click on a YT link or open a video in a new tab. It0s more confortable as edit the URL by hand, the script don't do other than this. Apart you can watch it in full tab size, better quality and without ads. You can search the Video also with Andi and watch it there embedded and sandboxed in the search result.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 6 days ago

Thanks for shedding light on this. I've also noticed the same thing on Instagram links. They now have a "igsh=" added to track sharing.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

What about that youtu.be one

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

So long as there's no extra suffix after, it shouldn't be so bad. So if you have youtu.be/?v=[video_ID] it's fine, but if there's a &si= or &pp= or &anything=, then that's most likely tracking and should be removed.

? is the start of the suffixes, & denotes a change in suffix. Every video has a v= suffix to denote the video itself, but everything else isn't needed.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

? is the start of the suffixes, & denotes a change in suffix Technically speaking they are query parameters not suffixes.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Can't they be both? Potato potahto.

Thank you for the correct terminology though.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Can’t they be both? Potato potahto.

It will destroy the Universe if we do that. /s