Hello Privacy community,
I’m still a privacy layman, so I apologize if my question is dumb or repeated.
I know in this forum we try to stay away from Google as much as possible, but lately I’ve been considering starting a Youtube channel. If any of you still use a Google account, what do you do to maintain your privacy? I’ve made a Google account through my Android phone, but I’m not sure if this is good for my privacy as Google supposedly has many back doors for Android, I’ve tried creating one through the web, but a number is required. What do you guys think?
If you’re getting in the YT business, then you’ll have to do what you need to, to make it happen. I don’t think privacy should be a priority or even a concern here because that pretty much doesn’t exist with Google.
If you made one via Android, then great. Use that account. And keep that Android just for your Google and YT stuff/business. If you can, get another phone for your personal use/life. I recommend Pixel with GrapheneOS on it. But if your threat model is not that high, then iPhone is perfectly acceptable after you harden it.
That’s my two cents on it. Keep the devices and activity with Google and YT compartmentalized on different devices as much as possible if you can. If not, use different user accounts on the same computer or at the very least, different browsers with the right settings. A VPN could also help with your privacy, co consider buying. IVPN, Mullvad, and Proton are great recommendations. I would go with Proton or IVPN to get very few if any CAPTCHAS.
Hello, I appreciate that you explained in a very digestible and simple way. Yeah I think I’m overthinking this, I probably don’t need the level of privacy that would require me to own multiple phones.. anyway thank you so much for the advice.
Create a google account without also creating a new Gmail address. Can use existing address, even alias on simplelogin or addy.io or duck.com address. From my experience they don’t ask for phone number when not creating a new Gmail address. Maybe create the account on a public McDonald wifi or public library pc or something, not on your own personal home network.
But since you’ll be using the account extensively later for the channel maybe need to further segregate via desktop vm or android work profile, plus always accessing via vpn to not make the McDonald and public library account creation moot.
I’ve been interested in the same issue as OP. I already made an account some time ago (VPN, separate laptop browser, probably ended up using a phone number ugh though). I’ve wondered about deleting it and remaking it, maybe with a better name, since I ever did anything with it anyway. I have something like 4 gmail accounts anyway, once fairly separate but now with so much cross contamination I stopped caring for a while.
Then again I also wonder what kind of threat model is ideal? Why should I be concerned about Google knowing that this and that account are the same person? In my head the bigger issue would be being hacked, doxxed, subject to data leaks, and other extraneous bad actors.
(Someday probably soon I’ll need to make a post to help figure out my email situation.)
I wholeheartedly agree with the first part, but I have some disagreements about the second part.
You wanna be a YouTuber? Absolutely got for it, man! But that doesn’t mean you necessarily have to stop caring about privacy.
Celebrities don’t all carry their fame the same way. Some are extremely private, others less so. The same goes for YouTubers. You have a lot of leeway.
1) Some YouTubers go by their real name. Others don’t.
2) Some YouTubers show their face (eg: Henry from TechLore). Others don’t (TheHatedOne).
And TheHatedOne is not an exception. I follow a lot of video essayists, and many of them don’t show their faces or only started showing their face years into their channel when they already had 100K+ subscribers. Showing your face can certainly make a huge positive difference in your success, but some YouTubers have been successful without it.
3) Some YouTubers share a lot about their personal lives. Others don’t.
I’m not just talking about YouTubers whose channel is based on their personal lives. A lot of YouTubers, whose channel is on a specific topic (eg: gardening), will share things about their personal lives that have nothing to do with that topic.
TechLore is all about privacy. What do I know about Henry the host? He’s American, he lives in California, he likes running, and that’s pretty much it. Other than that, he doesn’t share much about his personal life. You have that option too.
4) What you watch, like, and comment, doesn’t have to be linked to your YouTuber channel.
If your channel is about privacy, do you need to comment on a comedy skit you like if that skit is not about privacy? Do you want people to know that you like Bill Burr? That’s up to you. You can have a separate personal pseudonymous channel for that. And you can use a separate browser with a VPN if you don’t want Google to link your 2 accounts.
TL;DR: You can be a YouTuber, and still protect your privacy. It’s not all or nothing.
I also want to emphasize that showing your face may only help out in certain cases. While people like Henry and Jonah must understandably have some form of public persona that benefits their brand or career progression, that does not mean you need too.
@Nago If you do end up showing your face, you should consider deleting or privating most of your social media accounts. Key exception is LinkedIn or a personal website if you are trying to make some sort of brand or business with YouTube. Even so, I’m sure there are creators out there that are successful even without it
