I have been finding more and more videos being recommended on my homepage which I search about even though my privacy paths I follow seem good enough. So this is how it goes:

  • I come across a term I don’t know on a Lemmy post.
  • I open my browser, Cromite which has been set to priv.au, a searx instance, as the default search engine.
  • Search the word and don’t even open any links to know, just reading the meaning of this term out from the subtexts present on search results.
  • And then I open YouTube and scroll a bit on homepage to find a video on that term.

This has happened to me twice in past few days and I am not understanding which service of mine is giving it away. To add more about my setup, I’m on mobile btw, using FUTO keyboard and using Duckduckgo VPN which blocks cross-app tracking. My mobile lemmy client is Voyager. I don’t even interact with the post containing that term. I just open it up, read the post and the comments. No upvoting no commenting.

Who’s the culprit here?

  • over_clox@lemmy.world
    363·
    1 day ago

    I’m no expert here, but I think your problem starts when you said “I open YouTube”

    Whether you’re logged into Google or not, the YouTube app still tracks your video watch preferences and such. Try Grayjay instead…

    https://grayjay.app/

    • zerozaku@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      10·
      1 day ago

      the YouTube app still tracks your video watch preferences and such

      Yes I know they track users but I want to know how were they able to track me here in this case.

      • over_clox@lemmy.world
        2·
        18 hours ago

        Try this…

        • Force stop the YouTube app
        • In the YouTube app storage settings, clear the cache and storage

        The YT app, even not logged in, stores your data locally…

          • girsaysdoom@sh.itjust.works
            1·
            15 hours ago

            I would say it’s likely related to ColorOS or Play Services (or both) tracking something behind the scenes and feeding it to your ad profile. You’ve done a lot to try to reduce your fingerprint but it sounds like it could be something harder to track down.

            Have you considered switching to another version of Android that uses microG to reduce Play Service permissions or another phone with GrapheneOS? That may be the next option unfortunately.

            • zerozaku@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
              1·
              1 day ago

              Huh? It’s not? I don’t use any ai features. Infact, I have uninstalled Google app using Shizuku.

              • nimpnin@sopuli.xyz
                111·
                1 day ago

                The ai features are using you!

                In all seriousness, I would be slightly suspicious about any closed source OS’s privacy, doubly so if they aggressively advertise AI. But we can’t know for sure, it might very respect your privacy in this situation.

          • Ulrich@feddit.orgEnglish
            1·
            19 hours ago

            Are you logged into YouTube?

            Is YouTube opened in the browser or the app?