I watch a bunch YouTube channels. Everything from sailing to woodworking to flying to programming. Frequently the YouTube algorithm suggests something I find interesting enough to watch, but not interesting enough to add to corpus of data YouTube has about me.
When there is a video or short that I want to look at without being “me”. I copy the link and open a private window and watch it there. This worked famously. Until today. This morning when I tried this trick I was presented with a YouTube sign in screen. Refreshing and trying again didn’t help. Some quick research informed me that YouTube has been rolling out age gating.
(I’m not going to get into the smoke-and-mirrors aspect of “protecting youth by requiring they enter an age”. It is really about tracking.)
Fortunately I collect email addresses. So I dusted off a dormant one and used that to sign into YouTube in another browser. My watching habits are still being tracked, and with some work you could trace your way from the second account back to me.
At least I’m not polluting my primary YouTube feed with one-offs.