Protecting Yourself Online

[David32441]

Huh? I am not following you here.

If that video suddenly gets 100 visits the chances are they came from the place that posted the link.

Why? Why would someone who posted a video suddenly decide to visit/watch it on YouTube 100 times? Are they just insecure and trying to artificially increase the viewcount?

Maybe one of those "influencers" saw it and talked about it on their channel, so their sheeple started checking it out. That's how the brain viruses spread on the 'net.

Link lots of combinations and they'll know that they're people coming from that site.

I assume by "they" you mean the almighty Google. I have not figured out yet exactly what they want other than advertising eyeballs but I certainly do not trust their power via data. That is why I find it best to use a fake account when logging in to Google for YouTube, which is generally only when I am watching the naughty naughty age-restricted videos.

Of course I am stuck being honestly ME when I use my personal Gmail for email.

No, the point is that the 100 people would all be people on this forum. That if they got the IP's of people who viewed it and others posted here they'd corelate the IP's and get a profile. Aren't we more concerned about a government, now or in the future gaining data from G00gle and others.
I'd also add that future AIz can study spellings and comments and correlate posts in forums around the world in the same way they can do facial recognition now. ie. if I spelt AIz and G00gle like this on another forum that would correlate.

[Night457]

No, the point is that the 100 people would all be people on this forum.

OHHHHHHHHHH! Now I get it. If a YouTube link is posted on FLM, then the visits to YouTube from here can be traced back to FLM. I gotcha.

That if they got the IP's of people who viewed it and others posted here they'd corelate the IP's and get a profile.

My IP (and sometimes my country) keeps changing because of my VPN, but I understand your point. In most cases their profile will be of people who waste far too much time online. It is pretty easy to disappear anonymously in such a large crowd.

Back in the olden days here, some people would post https addresses as plain text in the [ Code ] brackets rather than as a direct URL, so others would have to copy and paste the link rather than click through directly. That way it could not be traced back to FLM.

Aren't we more concerned about a government, now or in the future gaining data from G00gle and others.

I know this sounds insane, but I trust my government more than I trust Google. Not that I trust my government, mind you.

I'd also add that future AIz can study spellings and comments and correlate posts in forums around the world in the same way they can do facial recognition now. ie. if I spelt AIz and G00gle like this on another forum that would correlate.

That is why everyone should use proper grammar and spelling at all times, rather than some idiosyncratic style that will draw attention and single them out! My English teacher was right!

Anyway, thank you for explaining. I was genuinely bewildered, and I think I understand you now.