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.
It should be common practice if you commonly share links. Try removing the query string (everything after and including the question mark). See if you get to the same page. If you do, don’t use the query string.
Query string parameters are rather often used for tracking. Look for gclid parameters after you click a google ad, for example.
The harder ones to bypass are Facebook and Reddit share URLs, which give zero indicator of their destination; it seems impossible as the recipient of such a URL.
At least with bit.ly, one can add a
+to the end of the URL and see data on it, including the original link (to then safely access without adding to its click counter).Yeah, there are always ways… any service could easily generate unique paths that require a server-supplied redirection to the main target. Then the server just needs to stitch up (1) where was that link generated and (2) who arrived at the redirection page. Users would have no way to determine the target link without exposing themselves to being tracked.
A platform like Reddit can do this too, by replacing the links you put in your comments/post, so they redirect to the original link. They can even make it continue displaying the original link, while actually linking to the redirect page.
FYI on desktop you can right click on the video and select “Copy video URL”, it doesn’t include the tracker string. Wish they’d let us remove it from the Share button, I’ve simply removed that button with uBlock Origin.
It’s also missing from my patched YouTube app’s Share on Android, not sure if that’s one of the patches.
Yeah, that’s certainly a patch. NewPipe, PipePipe, etc. all also remove
?si=.
i have never shared a youtube vid while logged in
If you never sign into YouTube and sharing links from a third party application, what is it that they append? Curious what makes up that shared id.
You should also known that TikTok does this by default and the generated code is impossible to remove afaik, it’s part of the video identifier.
So when sharing a tiktok video always download it and share the file.
I recommend downloading it anyway, since that doesn’t require people to use tiktoks site, but if you paste the vm link yourself into a browser, it’ll redirect to the canonical link, without the tracker.
https://f-droid.org/packages/com.svenjacobs.app.leon
I use this, and it works really well for the big apps and services.
That app seems not as transparent as it could be since it doesnt give any detail on the removed stuff; I recommend URLCheck instead, which is fully transparent about all trackers and even lets you pick which ones to remove at will.
vm.tiktok.com links do the same (they give a popup with the user that shared it). If an Instagram url has the
igshidorigsh(can’t remember which one), it can do the same.The frequency with which I’ve seen the
siattribute included in youtube links has made me painfully aware of just how many people are not using the internet the same way I do; they’re experiencing the internet through a handful of mobile apps, not through a web browser on the desktop.even some IT pros are leaving it in, knowing well what it does. some people just couldn’t care less.
I’m not an IT pro but I am ashamed I didn’t know this. I’ve spent a lot of time cutting up youtube links for shiz.
yup. I don’t use the google apps for ANYTHING. Even on my tab/phone, I use a browser (orion, with ublock origin installed) to watch youtube. It’s really annoying, but it’s better than using their spyware app.
Even then… what proportion of people do you think know the parts of a URL? Or know what a URL even is…
You may be in a bubble, friend
I know all this stuff and even I don’t look at the technical stuff in the URL. I just make sure it doesn’t have dQw4w9WgXcQ in there.
I refuse to search for that user, but dammit am I curious.
I searched for you and it’s actually worth it.
Iykyk
A problem I’ve had is people using those Google share links. I keep yelling them that I’m not clicking that link no matter how funny or interesting it may be.
This is why I use YouTube revanced. The features for it are great.
Traffic is roughly 70-80% mobile on most websites I know.
Done. Thank you.
til people don’t reflexively strip out everything after the ? unless you know exactly what it’s doing
Hey look at this video: https://youtube.com/watch
tbf, it’s intentionally designed to be malicious and deceiving
yup. all you need is the v=vkjlhaswlikuj3hg4 thing. that is the only thing you need, as it identifies the video. Strip everything else.
most people don’t even know what an URL is, and how it’s structured. if their browser does not remove the tracking parameters, they won’t get removed.
Since 4 March 2026 I am seeing “is=” in some YouTube links instead of “si=”, also with the 16 character ID.
I use this on Android to sanitise links I sent out as well as clean incoming links before viewing them.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.svenjacobs.app.leon
YSK PieFed automatically strips that out.
Edit: posts only, not in comments.
Like if you post a YouTube link, the platform detects it and automatically edits the link?
Yeah
Pretty cool!
Edit: I posted this from PieFed, and it preserved the “?si=” part of the URL, which I have since edited out by hand.
This one I loaded from a private-browsing tab. The URL includes the tracking ID but it may not be connected to me.
It doesn’t do it in comments, just when you make a post.
IMO You should add that detail to your top-level comment, as it’s going to be seen by more people than this clarification that definitely runs counter to how I interpreted your comment.
That would explain some things. Isn’t it a little bit odd to handle those differently? Oh well.
They might be talking about the default web interface.
That’s what I use!
Thats great!
Thank you for that.
That’s a great extra layer of protection, but people shouldn’t rely on it and get/stay in the habit of always removing the tracking code themselves.
Yeah, it’s easily possible to set it up to save the original link somewhere hidden. Same reason why you shouldn’t reuse passwords because it’s trivial to set up a site to look like it’s doing it right from the outside but actually saves all passwords in plaintext for owners, admins, or disgruntled staff to look at later and see if it logs in to your email.
Along similar lines be careful of the images you post if you location tag your photos. A lot of the larger websites will strip the location data by default but some do not. I’ve saved a handful of photos from reviews off the internet and now have people’s home addresses where the photo is of the product in their living room or whatever.
If you go to the ‘map’ section of your photos app it arranges them by location.
You can turn location tagging off globally when photos are taken or usually when you go to share a photo there is an option buried in a menu to strip location data(on mobile).
I have an iOS shortcut that remove exit meta data.
You can turn location tagging off globally
That’s one of the first things I did when configuring my kids phones.
