When you share a YouTube video using the share button it adds “si=some_unique_code” to the URL. If you don’t remove that it shows your personal account to anyone who receives it so that they can chat directly with you. For a lot of people this is their real name.

I’ve seen it all over Lemmy so I figured I’d mention it here! You only need the stuff before the question mark in the URL to let others see the video.

This can also be turned off in your YouTube settings under the privacy section. The setting is “channel visibility for shared links”. It will still add the si code for tracking though.

  • Victor@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    Always remove those search parameters before pasting links, even to my friends. F—k these big tech platforms, I’m not giving you any sharing data!

    • Crescent@fedinsfw.app
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      8 hours ago

      Same here, the awful thing is if they click on it, they cannot see the comments under the video and can only “reply” to you. Not sure what that should do, since the link has already been shared.