Yes, seriously. I wanted to try and see how invasive Google’s tracking and fingerprinting is. The new PC never connects to the internet outside Proton’s. I never signed in to my YT account on this PC. Yet Youtube still manages to know it’s me. And I know that because the recommendations on the “Trending” videos include results completely unrelated to the current video, but they ARE recommendations from channels I follow.
Any explanation? What does this indicate about the data Google has on me? I feel like I’m doing something wrong, or Google’s spying is just fiendishly intrusive, or Youtube is simply built in a way that makes (near) total anonymity impossible outside the TOR network and browser (which I did try and didn’t get any targeted recommendations).
The trending tab on freetube just shows the current trending videos on youtube regardless of what video you are watching. If you’re talking about the most popular tab, that’s based on your Invidious instance and chances are that people who use freetube and Invidious are watching the same types of videos (tech videos, privacy videos, etc). Unless you are talking about something incredibly niche and specific, the fact that you’re seeing recommendations that make sense for you seems pretty normal. My trending tab on freetube is mostly clickbait type stuff for kids, cause that’s what trends on youtube. My most popular tab is mostly tech stuff and privacy stuff, cause that’s what people who use freetube and Invidious are interested in.
Just being on a VPN doesn’t scramble your IP address. It just gives you an IP not associated with your ISP and hides what your ISP can see. If Proton is giving you the same IP always for your device we’re taking about, Google doesn’t need you to be logged in to see the same IP and app fingerprint picking the same videos to make a shadow profile of you. Especially if that same IP is also on a bunch of sites with Google ads trackers to corroborate the data.
I have a router-level VPN connection, but that puts all traffic in the house out through the same IP. When I then do a second layer VPN on just one device, only that device and IP is no longer associated with my house. If I spend a week on Google and IG searching speedboats on my phone and laptops at some point my TV at the same IP will start popping hot for speedboats. If I jump with my laptop to another layer of VPN to a fresh IP, no speedboats, but only on that one device.
Google might link your activity through the VPN exit nodes. If you have other devices on the same network (e.g., a phone, tablet), YouTube could associate their behavior with your new machine by linking IP addresses, even behind a VPN. Google employs predictive models that don’t require exact matches they just need “close enough” correlations to make confident recommendations. If Google detects patterns in the content you’re watching, even via API calls, it can connect them to your past activity.
XFF or webrtc Could possibly be used to track you. It may not be the case but worth looking into. Go to fingerprint.com and let it fingerprint you and I bet no matter which way you try, it will show the same fingerprint and how many times you connected. Hopefully you figure it out and maybe this info will be helpful
Are you sure it isn’t that you have similar tastes as a wide variety of people? If there is an overlap of 80% of people that are subscribed to two youtubers, it wouldn’t be surprising if you saw saw recommendations between the two. After watching videos from a half dozen channels the algorithm probably already has a good idea about what you like.
Or to put it another way, the algorithms can learn your preferences fast.
Is it possible the recommended videos are from popular creators with trending videos right now, who you also happen to follow? Could it be a coincidence
Try it again, but unplug all your audio on the PC & microphones, put it in a VM, and turn your phone off and put it in another room. Some devices can communicate via sub-human audio “Chirps”.
I’d be curious.
If you’re running an Intel CPU, there is a processor id that got snuck in years ago. If it’s been linked to you in the past, it’ll be linked in the future.
Saw Brave mentioned and it sounds like you are not using other google services… I assuming you also aren’t signing in to youtube.
But for comparison purposes, have you tried:
Using Firefox/Librewolf
Disabling WebRTC (which can leak IP address). To disable in Firefox/Librewolf, go to about:config and set media.peerconnection.enabled=false
Install uBlockOrigin (this is installed by default on LibreWolf but needs to be done manually on Firefox). In uBlockOrigin settings, select ALL filters not related to region and apply.
Sign in from multiple vpn locations and verify no dns leaks (e.g. dnsleaktest.com)
That should do a decent job masking you.
Also, check the recommendations you get from several different videos on several different topics. If you are viewing something niche, it may be that there are just limited recommendations for that particular video / topic. I know for certain songs or on technical topics like Linux or programming, you often see the same recommended vids in the right-hand pane.
How well does your browser do with fingerprinting tests? Tor and VPNs do very little for tracking, the days of that shit being based on IP have pretty much passed.