this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2026
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DeGoogle Yourself

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how do you get google to stop tracking you even after you tried everything? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 3 days ago by lemmingsareawesome@sh.itjust.works to c/degoogle@lemmy.ml
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(this isnt a question about how to make invidious more secure/private i just want google to stop knowing everything i do and every device i have) I like watching youtube videos. I hate google. I try invidious. It's pretty cool.

I watch the videos I like on it. But I get suspicous. The channels I wacth even after I change my Ip, clear my cookies, change my tor circuts, even change my entire os to something real private like tails or qubes with whonix , ARE STILL RECOMMENDED TO ME. So I do a test. I watch channels I don't like. There it is. I feel like google is laughing in my face

Whats worse, I went on a different device and the same videos are there :(.

ive tried vpns, tor, tails, whonix in qubes, quad9, and nothing works. what do i do now?

(im not concerned about youtube synching reccomendations im concerned about google knowing what i like, and what devices i have no matter what tools i use)

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[–] sudo@programming.dev 7 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Browser Fingerprinting. You must configure your browser to lie about what it is and change the lie repeatedly. Simplest way is plugin to change your browsers User-Agent. This will be a big deal on mobile because mobile browsers will actually report the device model in the UA. Be prepared to see lots of captchas if you do this though.

[–] schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

How is YouTube getting that fingerprint through Invidious, though?

[–] sudo@programming.dev 2 points 2 days ago

Its possible that is YouTube isn't building a profile of the user but a profile of that specific invidious instance which is all of its users collectively. Its also possible that invidious is leaking some browser info like User-Agent to YouTube. That way switching IP doesn't matter as long as its the same invidious instance.

Switching invidious instances should clear that up. If not then you've got a serious problem with invidious.

[–] EliteCloneMike@lemmy.zip 5 points 3 days ago (1 children)

But you don’t want it to randomize the fingerprint with every webpage change, that itself becomes an identifiable signal.

[–] sudo@programming.dev 2 points 2 days ago

You just change it when you want to drop any profile you developed. ie on browser start. The problem with changing it every page is sites will assume you're a bot and either block you or serve you a captcha on every page.

[–] lemmingsareawesome@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

ive tried the defualt in the real tor browser with safest settings. also tried an extension called chalmeon ( i cant spel) no differnce in the creepy tracking not even a budge

[–] sudo@programming.dev 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Are you always using the same invidious instance? Does it track across different invidious instances?

[–] lemmingsareawesome@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

no i use nadeko and nerdvpn. i dont want anything (if perfection was possible) tracking across different sessions and even devices

[–] sudo@programming.dev 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

So its not tracking you across instances? Then its probably tracking the invidious instance itself and not you in particular unless invidious leaks some amount of data about your browser which is possible.

If you don't want YouTube to be able to develop a temporary profile from a single invidious session then I think you're out of luck. Either make a new session per-video or give up. Invidious needs to pass YouTube's bot management somehow and once it does YouTube will give it a trackable session token.

[–] lemmingsareawesome@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago

i dont mind temporary profiles. it has a permenate profile that i cant get away from ( i want google (and other services) to think im a different person when i change my idenity in tor which is what i thought would happen