YouTube loses a bit more of my info

I was glad that Larry Page has now taken the reins at Google again. Maybe we can bring back a bit of the pioneering spirit rather than the MBA-heavy, establishment-thinking, netizen-offending, privacy-breaching culture of recent years. If there’s one thing that’s helped raise Google’s stock in my mind, it’s this appointment.
   Meanwhile, it doesn’t mean I have stopped my gripes about Google. Today, I noticed that YouTube has made the fact that we can connect to it using our Facebook accounts that much more obvious. It might be, I thought, a way to ensure that Google does not hold all of our personal information and have it spread around a bit more. It might be an answer for those of us who do not want to connect our YouTube and Google accounts.
   I clicked on the link out of curiosity and was given the usual window:

YouTube wants to access my Facebook info

No problem so far, but I thought it looked incredibly familiar.
   Here’s why. I had already done it ‘More than 6 months ago’ (read a few years ago):

YouTube wants to access my Facebook info

I don’t know what connecting a second time does, but netizens might want to check if they have already connected their YouTube and Facebook accounts. I have no idea, other than seeing the message on some YouTube videos, how to get to the first window shown above—there are no links from other YouTube pages, from what I can tell.
   Meanwhile, even without having an account, YouTube will still be able to compile a ‘Recommended for You’ section, based on cookies and what you have already browsed on its site. It’s to make it easier for Doubleclick to sell ads. The compilation of the section is in their terms and conditions of access, so there’s not much we can do, other than to block the YouTube cookie. You will still be able to watch YouTube videos without the cookie.
   The result of all Google’s recent insistence to merge our YouTube and Google accounts, sadly, has been my removal of the YouTube app from Facebook, blocking of the YouTube cookie, and keeping my YouTube and Google accounts separate. I know I’m in the minority, but as far as I’m concerned, Google has shot itself in the foot again.


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