privacy

Youtube automatically adds a tracking code called an SI to most links generated through their app and webpage. It's a unique identifier used to track video sharers. If Alice shares a video with her SI in it and Bob clicks the link, Bob's browser will send Alice's SI to youtube, and now Google knows that Alice and Bob are friends. It's a way of spying on people's interactions outside of youtube. You can install browser extensions and alternate apps that strip away your SI, to prevent Google from spying on you.

So I'm wondering if we can use SIs to hack the youtube algorithm. For example, let's say we took note of a left wing youtuber's SI, someone nice like hbomberguy, and a million people installed a browser extension that adds hmbomberguy's si to all their youtube links. And then they just go along sharing links as normal. Would the algorithm notice that tons of people are looking at videos seemingly shared by hbomberguy, and boost his videos? Or is there anything else we could do with SIs to manipulate Google's analytics in a way that spoils their data and achieves some useful and prosocial end we believe in?