(this is my first post im new) ive noticed something no one seems to have a problem with. do you have this problem to? am i just doing something wrong?
i use a privacy friendly browser plus a privacy friendly os and use fingerprint spoofer/blocker. i watch videos on invidious. i noticed that the “popular” tab shows videos related to videos i watched before. even if i clear my cookies, or change my idenity in (offiscial) tor browser i still get recommended related videos meaning no matter what i do google knows what i watch. whats worse, if i go on invidious on a totally different device with a normal broswer normal os, i get the same videos. meaning websites know what videos i watch across multiple sessions but also multiple devices. im sick of this. it feels like i’ve tried everything, sacrificed so much connivence but no results.
(this isn’t a question spefecifically about youtube google or invindious just how to get webisites to stop knowing everything i do across multiple identities and every device i use)
Things I tried
*Proton vpn+librewolf(max security according to settings)+nosircpt+Ublock(with the filters it comes with)+ officisal recommended invidious instances+Quad9 via settings
*Tails+Tor browser(max security settings apprentaly)+default bridge+no javascirpt+fingerprint spoofing estendsion+bluetooth disabled by tails+all the previous mentioned (exculding vpn i heard its risky)+invidious again (Tails doesn’t work well for me the police are not after me and it takes so long to start and presisent stoarage is annoying)
*Qubes+Whonix vm+Tor browser(max again)+no javascript (I love and hate qubes from my first impression it meets my security needs and you can run any os in a vm on it but i wish it just worked. theres a steep learning curve and my hardware isn’t the best for it)
No results on any of these just slower internet and some websites are broken. Its just like using a normal browser that tracks you but slow as a privacy one. im getting tired of this. i use all this super deep level paranoid overkill stufff and nothing happens. like im burning my house to get rid of a spider but the spider is still there
possible causes
-google wireless access point (does qubes/whonix/tor NOT protect against this at all??) (also my family HATES any changes or mild inconveniences)
-i logged in to google without a vpn **ONCE **does this automatically doom you forever **even ** if you change os and browser and device?
-hardware is framework laptop
for clairtiy
I am not -a criminal -a journalist -a gooner -willing to go off grid in the woods I am -creeped out -tired -about to give up
My privacy goals
-be able to actually cut ties with my shadow profile and have websites not know everything ive done in my life -control what data brokers and compaines knsw -not have any website at all know every device i use -be able to use any network safely
I feel like giving up on privacy because nothing seems to work. the only results I get is slower more broken internet
Popular tab on invidious. But i also see videos related to things i watch on invidious on youtube.
i dont want any website to track me it be invidous or youtube but i still want to use them.
ive already compared it . Its the exact same as if im not even trying to be private :(
im not scared of syncing video recommendations. the video recommendations is just the crak that i see in my privacy (the thing that proves im not private) idk why its like this
if google (or other websites and services) can know everything ive done They can do bad things. i want to stop that
Based on the Invidious documentation the popular tab should be the same for everyone so the thing that would prove the tracking is somehow following you despite your privacy efforts would be finding a completely separate device where the popular tab is not the same.
i do use other devices. theyre the same. its creepy that google knows every device i own and what i watch no matter what i do. i use invidious to test if google is still tracking me and its always the same result.
I’m not sure how to word this differently other then again saying that the Invidious popular tab should be the same for all your devices, all my devices, and everyone’s devices since the base Invidious is open source, claims to not track its users, and the popular page is built from what everyone on that instance watches.
The entire point of Invidious is to completely remove the direct google connections when users watch videos so assuming your instance is not some kind of google honeypot… for almost all intents and purposes google cannot track you when you use Invidious especially if you’re on a secure browser behind a vpn and if they could they would not reveal their hand to you in such an obvious mundane way. Most websites are made for people not actively trying to avoid tracking so just hitting the private browsing or incognito buttons is almost always enough to make that kind of obvious tracking go away even if the underlying server or a chrome browser phoning home is still 100% confident of your identity.
i dont think invidious is tracking me i think its google since i get recommeded videos on youtube based on invidious. i really wished google cant track me like you say.
i try to use fingerprint spoofing built in to tor and whonix but it doesnt work. they even know which devices i use (i look at specfic channels and theyre recommended on every device i own no mattter what i do) i use tails or whonix in qubes and still get the same results as using ios (completely different device) on regualr joe guy safari and im tired of it
btw. its not a question just about invidious or google i want to prevent this on every website (i know privacy is never perfect blah blah blah) if google can know everything i watched and every device i own so eaisly despite what i do, its safe to say other bad guys can too.
Again: google tracking you should have nothing to do with invidious and once you’ve change IP + fingerprint your anonymized setup will share no direct links with your previous setups so no site would be sure enough of your identity to sync video recommendations. It’s not just what I am saying, it’s a fundamental truth of how the internet works.
Google can only track you with the data you give or allow them to have. A lot of people report their android phones as listening to them and some stuff has come out about that so there exists some chance that your youtube recommendations on youtube could be influenced by one of your devices being able to physically hear the audio of invidious videos you watch coming out of another device’s speakers… but that’s supposed to only influence ads and you say you use ios so it’d be very unlikely.
The most likely scenario is that your initial conclusions are flawed and in actuality you are being affected by things like confirmation bias. Please look for actual evidence of a device that is not yours using a fresh anonymized setup showing different results from one of your devices with an anonymized setup. Again, the Invidous popular tab should be the same for everyone but based on your words you still seem to think that it being the same despite your efforts means that google is somehow tracking you and is somehow using their tracking data to inject video recommendations into a site they don’t control which would basically be impossible on multiple levels because things just don’t work that way.
Avoiding google is one of the hardest privacy hurdles because they own and control so much of the infrastructure that many people’s internet lives rely on. Other bad guys won’t have the same access to google’s infrastructure so it’s not safe to they can too. And it’s very likely that all of them won’t be following you after you’ve anonymized your setup and will make no attempts to do so unless some sort of three letter agency is actually after you specifically.