Hello. 2 years ago I started my privacy journey, I learned a lot, maybe even too much to have paranoia issues, lol. I want to ask you 1 question, as example for the topic I want to discuss.
I used LibreTube to watch youtube. I like all my subscriptions, likes and playlists are offline, locally saved. But I had issues with terrible trending videos, which I have zero interest to watch. Now I use YouTube again (Revanced app) and youtube suggests me good videos to watch, I rarely see dumb trending videos suggestions. That is really different experience, which I forgot during years of being privacy-conscious person. I probably should mention I have zero ads both in Revanced and LibreTube, thanks to Sponsorblock too. So I have way better experience and Google has some data on me, which they can not use to show me ads. I have zero paranoia issues with this now, I do not care at all, as things just got better.
Thanks for the post! If anything, maybe this is feedback you can give to the project to help them develop the product better? Or maybe try invidious?
With that said, this is somewhat expected. Privacy comes with the lack of sending data, so the platform won’t be able to give as many recommendations tailored to you.
I think if this stopped being an issue for you, it’s good to re evaluate what privacy steps are important for you, and make choices that best suit you
I believe this can be disabled, at least I know that it can with other popular privacy respecting youtube frontends. I see no algorithmically recommended content, just (1) search (2) subscriptions (3) channels, and (4) playlists. I prefer it this way, but I can understand how others would like the personalized experience.
I probably should mention I have zero ads both in Revanced and LibreTube, thanks to Sponsorblock too. So I have way better experience and Google has some data on me, which they can not use to show me ads. I have zero paranoia issues with this now, I do not care at all, as things just got better.
If it works for you, it works for you. It is all about finding the balance that feels right to you (and that balance will likely change over time).
Personally my concern with data harvesting and tracking doesn’t revolve around targeted-advertising (which is a visible symptom of the problem, but not the problem itself). Targeted ads are just one way profiling can be used to manipulate. I also don’t feel that most algorithmic recommendations are geared towards showing me content I want to see. They are geared towards showing me content that is likely to get me to watch more content, and tends to target common triggers (typically things that make you feel (1) outraged (2) right (3) righteous (4) the victim or the hero, or focus on drama/controversy/or something polarizing… also cat videos of course).
I’d suggest you to try out piped. This has the same content as YouTube since it’s proxied from there, you can subscribe to channels, and the videos that come for suggestions are also pretty accurate. And it’s got sponsorblock too.
Moreover, this also solves your problem regarding Trending videos as piped allows you to set a country preference and the Tending’s page is adjusted accordingly. Ex: if you select USA as your country, you’ll get content that’s trending in the USA vs if you select Germany as your country then you’ll get content that’s trending in Germany. This doesn’t have to do ANYTHING with your physical location. I use a VPN at all times and my Trending preference is set to USA.
If you don’t want Trending page at all, I don’t think so you can disable it on Piped but you can rather set the subscriptions page as your home page. So frankly speaking it wouldn’t bother you.
Maybe annoying is not the best word to describe privacy. An inconvenient choice fits more to the description.
There’s no way to make content recommendations without creating some unique personal data and training for it.
You can switch back and forth between YouTube and privacy-respecting Invidious instances as you wish. This still gives you control over what kind of personal data you want to give to YouTube.
It doesn’t have to be an all or nothing kind of situation.