Why watch history?

BLKBRDSR71 · August 17, 2023

So today I logged in to my YouTube channel and this came up.

Seems I can't get around it unless I enable my "watch history". Does this happen to anyone else? Is their a work around?

I can still watch videos from my other channels so nothing else has changed. I'm using the latest version of Opera if that helps.

K4STOR · August 17, 2023

Those who disable watch history are doomed to re-watch

YoungBlade · August 17, 2023

https://www.theverge.com/2023/8/8/23824672/youtube-blank-homepage-watch-history

This is a new thing that Google did with YouTube. It will be rolling out to everyone over the next few months. The leading theories seem to be centered around either Google trying to force users to turn back on Watch History or Google blanketly disabling sections of YouTube that depend on Watch History data when you turn it off.

My best interpretation of the latter is that Google doesn't want to have to spend developer time programming a different version of the front page for those with and without Watch History enabled.

My most cynical interpretation is that Google is trying to convince users that turning off Watch History "does something" when in reality Google probably tracks all your Watch History regardless of what you do, and this is a way of pretending that they don't. But when has Google ever lied about consumer privacy? It's not like this change came about right when a judge decided not to throw out a $5 billion dollar privacy suit against the company. That sure would be suspicious timing for a decision like this if that happened right when this changed.

Oops, I dropped a link that's totally unrelated to what I was just writing about... https://www.reuters.com/technology/google-fails-end-5-billion-consumer-privacy-lawsuit-2023-08-08/