For the longest time, I had my watch and search histories turned off on YouTube; technically it is referred to as “paused”. It occurred to me that despite this setting, Google might still be storing this data and there would be no way for me to prove otherwise. I (obviously) haven’t fully read the terms and conditions of use for YouTube so it’s hard to tell if there’s a sneaky sentence in there allowing them to do this despite whatever it is they wanted me to believe.
Now YouTube significantly limits the usability of the service if you have your search and watch history turned off and I figured that since I cannot determine for a fact that they honored the setting, I might as well turn the feature back on. I was not ready for what I would see next — YouTube was making suggestions based on things I had recently searched for and seen! What ever happened to “pausing” search and watch histories‽ The only way that this could have happened was that Google never honored the setting! “Pausing” your watch and search histories does nothing to keep Google from storing and then using them to make recommendations on what to show you next.
As we often say, #donttrustverify #privacy
10/3/2024, 4 engagements