TechAltar9h ago

PSA: If you share a YouTube video using the native share feature it now attaches your user ID (?si=xxxxxx) to the URL automatically.

YT likely does this to growth-hack DMs. When someone clicks on the link, YT can start a DM thread between you two automatically with this ID even if they found the link outside of the YT app.

If you post links publicly, I strongly recommend deleting the ID unless you want to post your user profile.

Show threadMarkus Göllnitz
@Techaltar This sounds misleading. It is easily verifiable: These ids are unique per share, not per user.
I couldn't find anything on how to extract anything identifying purely from this id.
While Google certainly could and likely does track the initiating user, amongst other, since this ids introduction in 2023, I'd be surprised if any data related to the share, such as user, timestamp, device and client would be stored in this id.
That said, removing tracking parameters is good advice overall.
12:24pmWeb
Show threadTechAltar6h ago
@camelCaseNick you are right, it looks like a new ID technically is generated for each share, but opening a link with the tag attached in the YT mobile app still shows you which user the share is from by asking you to start a DM with them so you can very much track who the source of the link is from even if the tag is randomized