XM424987 (Yrba Eboovaf) 𓃬𓅳
Æ.You REALLY should remove the tracking codes from Youtube links now.
They started showing a popup about who sent the link and offering a (maybe new) DM feature, potentially revealing your personal account name to anyone who opens the link.
you can anonymize the link by removing the part of the link after the “?”
(at least for youtube currently, this can be different on other platforms and may also change in the future)
if you’re on an Apple device, you can use this shortcut that does it automatically for most popular platforms:
https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/ac969c798e1d4e78af488fea9530921a
i’m sure a similar thing exists on android but I don’t have a non-ancient android device.
Johannes Knopp@aesthr On android I can recommend url-checker to preview the url and control the parameters when opening an link on the client side. You can set it as your standard browser, then it will always display the url to open and has options to remove unwanted tracking parameters.
It is an extra step to open a link, so it can be inconvenient. But it can also save you from visiting sites you dislike before firing them up in a browser.
https://f-droid.org/packages/com.trianguloy.urlchecker
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.trianguloy.urlchecker
Bart Allen
C.@barryallen2023 @joknopp @aesthr FB share embeds their "who sent it" ID into the codes with no easy "?..."
I paste my share link into a non-logged-in mobile browser, get rid of the "[Name] sent you this blah blah" pop over, and THEN you can copy the plain URL.
I don't share FB content much. It adds 2 steps but I don't really want them to know I shared with X and Y IRL friends.
I see more platforms adopting this more invasive method in the surveillance-heavy future.
Ray McCarthy@SlangC5326 @barryallen2023 @joknopp @aesthr
1. Don't use facebook
2. Don't log in on YouTube if sharing.
Leander Lindahl@raymaccarthy @barryallen2023 @joknopp @aesthr
Agree on the "no FB" in theory. All my
content save 6 neutral posts 5 non-face photos are gone. But small town living = In practice, everyone coordinates school, small biz, kid sports, etc. on FB.
Cue meme of The Grinch: Hate, hate, detest, LOATHE. 👎 May Zuck get a nice case of itchy crabs for playing the long game to force that nonsense.
Disisdeguey🍉🔻PalestineAction🇵🇸
Bryce Dixon
91749101847199@bryce @joknopp @aesthr
https://morphe.software/
Revanced got a little scummy, some of the devs left and made morphe. That's one of my favorite pieces of software
https://morphe.software/
Revanced got a little scummy, some of the devs left and made morphe. That's one of my favorite pieces of software
@91749101847199 @joknopp @aesthr good to know, thanks for sharing.
Its definitely one of those things I use, but don't closely follow.
LeBonk@LeBonk
The very short summary is that the ReVanced project lead was rejecting a lot of feature contributions with unreasonable justifications, so a bunch of devs left and made their own fork (Among other problems).
This post covers it lightly, and shows where things are at currently.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MorpheApp/comments/1s3w1er/regarding_the_morphe_dmca/
@91749101847199 @LeBonk That post doesn't say anything about PRs being rejected (which is always completely valid to do as a project maintainer regardless of the reasoning). The post *does* mention taking code from Morphe and using it without attribution, which is upsetting, but it also mentions that ReVanced takes "non-bot commits."
What's the reason ReVanced wasn't accepting PRs? I feel like that's important context.
@bryce @LeBonk
If you're interested in oSumAtrIx's side of the story (Revanced's developer), here's their reddit post about it, with links to a google drive of their side of the story.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Piracy/comments/1q26tvw/comment/nxblagk/
Continued here
https://www.reddit.com/r/revancedapp/comments/1q2ar6e/context_provided_from_revanced_regarding_recent/
There's numerous posts about oSum's behavior leading to many refusing to work with him anymore. One for example.
https://www.reddit.com/r/BoostForReddit/comments/1pkyxvx/i_will_no_longer_be_supporting_patches_in/
Which links to further drama that's been deleted, but archived in the comments.
Final from me in this thread
@91749101847199 @LeBonk Thanks for sharing all that; it's very hard to find accurate information on crap like this, so I appreciate you putting in the effort to share with us.
@91749101847199 @bryce
christ, even if i agreed with the guy it'd be utterly fucking exhausting to witness that shit. going on and on about "the narrative" like a paranoid conspiracist. and "disregarding AI is source fallacy" is extremely not something you wanna hear from a software dev.
christ, even if i agreed with the guy it'd be utterly fucking exhausting to witness that shit. going on and on about "the narrative" like a paranoid conspiracist. and "disregarding AI is source fallacy" is extremely not something you wanna hear from a software dev.
sherbang
eggg@aesthr
I'm foreseeing soon that the share button will no longer include the video URL but is a bespoke share link which is harder/not possible to reverse engineer / strip out the share metadata.
Like, eventually we may have to tell people "search for these terms" if we want to share things untracked
Steve Purcell
RTG-powered Vel@sanityinc uh, no? the "share" feature in the web interface gives a https://youtu.be/<video ID>?si=<junk> link, at least in my case (not logged in).
@eggg oh right, a/b.. would make sense ;w;
Daniel Bohrer@risc @sanityinc @eggg @aesthr I've seen the &si= parameters already for a few months now, but the &is= is news to me. However they also add &pp= to search result URLs, which seems to be a similar thing (at least it can safely be removed without influencing the content)
Винт Прокс@daniel_bohrer @risc @sanityinc @eggg @aesthr
Be aware that they also add "&list=" to links from search results, which is less noticeable, but those are generated PERSONALIZED playlists by which YouTube still can track you back. Remove this as well, if you don't intend to show some real playlist.
みやくモード@sanityinc @eggg @aesthr fwiw, every youtu dot be link i see in the wild currently uses the opaque identifier for the global video id (sometimes with the tracking identifier after the question mark that you can strip in the same way). of course they could eventually start switching this to a slightly different opaque unique per-user identifier that looks similar to the video id and it would probably take people a while to notice, but they don’t seem to be doing it yet
Vassil Nikolov | Васил НиколовSince recently (for several weeks) the parameter is (sometimes) `is'.
@janriemer @aesthr oh that's gross
taylor 
Becca@janriemer i wondered why the same video was showing different titles on different devices
@janriemer @eggg yes, YT has some A/B testing features like that
Mike Roach
Ember is so tired of people. 
@aesthr i think revanced has a tweak to remove tracking from the share button
sodiboo 
Jay 🆘@aesthr I was just about to post mine when I saw this — this is good but removes everything after a question mark, which might be necessary for some kinds of URLs.
I have one that just removes a set of known tracking parameters from the query string:
https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/b24ab9af96cf47efa2a918464cf09244
cobalt@aesthr I just put that shortcut menu on my Mac with the Clean URL Clipboard to paste and it returns great, without the tracking. My test is below, audio for Ren and Chris Webby Inpatient--Neurodivergent. Darn catchy recent tune. I want to play it often. #Ren #ND #Neurodivergent
Ren:
https://youtu.be/CNGcF7T9D3w
Ren:
https://youtu.be/CNGcF7T9D3w
Inpatient (Ren x Chris Webby) - Neurodivergent [Official Audio]
Kevin Russell
haluzinelle bin chicken nicole@aesthr I am so with you on this! on firefox there is an addon that can keep track of doing that for you: https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/clearurls/
Annika Backstrom@aesthr Agree that you should remove them before sharing!
uBlock Origin's "AdGuard/uBO – URL Tracking Protection" filter will remove them from links you click, if you want to save a step cleaning any links you _receive_. (Only works if you don't have the YT app, of course.)
Rania rizq@aesthr
I’m Rania from Gaza 💔
We lost our home, and now my children and I are living in a fragile tent with no protection from the cold, heat, or insects.
My children suffer every day, and I am unable to provide their basic needs 💔
Please don’t leave us alone. Any donation or share could help us survive 🙏🤍
🔗 Help & donation link in bio.
I’m Rania from Gaza 💔
We lost our home, and now my children and I are living in a fragile tent with no protection from the cold, heat, or insects.
My children suffer every day, and I am unable to provide their basic needs 💔
Please don’t leave us alone. Any donation or share could help us survive 🙏🤍
🔗 Help & donation link in bio.
sprouting Ske-Lil-ton 🌱@aesthr there is a setting to keep YouTube from sharing your account with the person you're sending the link. This does not remove the tracking parameter, but should keep you from accidentally leaking your account, in case you forget to remove the tracking
In the YouTube app on Android: If you click on the share button you should see a popup with something like "sending as [your channel]", clicking on your channel should lead you to an explanation with a link to the setting to deactivate it
In the YouTube app on Android: If you click on the share button you should see a popup with something like "sending as [your channel]", clicking on your channel should lead you to an explanation with a link to the setting to deactivate it
@aesthr I assume it's similar on iOS but I don't own one
(And the fact that you can deactivate it does not change the fact, that this is a shitty (and probably dangerous) feature and that making it opt-out (instead of opt-in) is a terrible decision!
And finding the right setting for the opt-out isn't trivial either, which obviously sucks)
Jim Patterson 🇨🇦@aesthr If you're on Desktop and use Firefox, it's simple. There's a "Copy Clean Link" command to copy a link without the tracking parameters.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enhanced-tracking-protection-firefox-desktop#w_copy-clean-link
tbehrens✡️@SheamusPatt @aesthr And for iPhones you can use the App „Clean Links“. https://apps.apple.com/de/app/clean-links-url-datenschutz/id6747395062
Chris Mackay 🇨🇦@aesthr @JoBlakely
@ttscoff made a little app for iOS called Clean Links and, while it hasn’t been updated in more than a decade, I still use it every day. https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/clean-links/id623671942
@ttscoff made a little app for iOS called Clean Links and, while it hasn’t been updated in more than a decade, I still use it every day. https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/clean-links/id623671942
Brett Terpstra 🏴🐈⬛@tantramar @aesthr @JoBlakely Full disclosure, I inherited that app as it was based on some of my old work, but it wasn't my creation and I've been a terrible steward of it.
@tantramar @aesthr @JoBlakely but to be fair, I also can't remember the last time I had to answer a support request for that one…
dallo
MusiqueNow 🇵🇸 ✡️
Gracjan Nowak@aesthr I think that Safari strips this parameter automatically when you open a link containing it, which works in Private Browsing mode by default and can be set to always do this by changing "Use advanced tracking and fingerprinting" to "in all browsing" in browser settings.
Am I right here? Can you confirm that, @mysk?
Zeno