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Its impossible for me to subscribe to a youtuber because I don't have (and don't want) a Youtube account. I understand Youtubers get more visibility with more subscriptions, but I just don't want to be part of the algorithm. I can close my private browser, and any algorithm infection is wiped clean from my view.
piped.30p87.de
And all other piped/invidious instances. You can sub locally, and everything is stored as a cookie in your browser (afaik).
Every channel has an RSS feed. I use that instead.
You can download newpipe and subscribe there. It makes a local subscription, no account needed. Also no ads.
Depending on your setup, YouTube will still fingerprint your browser and track your behavior, as is common practice with ad networks.
Your cookies and data might be cleared but as long as yt has any way to generate a unique identifier out of your browser preferences, it will identify you and start looking at your behavior / figuring out an algorithm.
Just fyi.
Sure, it can start building it again just with what I search to watch. Then I get to close the browser again and wipe it clean again. I know that fingerprinting exists, but I'm not seeing its behavior for video suggestions. In fact, I do see tracking by IP because I'll get suggested things I know my wife is looking at (and we're coming from the same IP). Even those are few and far between though.
I would strongly recommend using a VPN and changing servers regularly in that case.
I don't think this is true. Every time i reset the app on my tv, i see zero recommends that would fit my browsing history. Also I've tested it on 3 browsers (including default Chrome and edge) after clearing everything and it is default. Nothing i see recommended fits my history. So yea, no, this is not true. I'm sure they try to fingerprint but it doesn't seem to work well or it's just not sophisticated enough to track it through a browser/app clear. I'm not even using a VPN when i tested this.
That's fine, I'm not tempted by the sidebars to partake in the algo at all because I've removed them with extensions. Without an account, yeah then I'd be using NewPipe and whatever desktop equivalents are surely out there.