I am a big fan of YouTube. It’s an incredible platform for so many reasons, boasting a scale that is truly massive. As a YouTube Premium subscriber, primarily to avoid ads (I’m not an ad blocker user), I believe it offers the best value among streaming services available today. If I could only choose one streaming service, YouTube Premium would be my top pick, without a doubt. With nearly 7,000 favorited videos, I sometimes imagine a dedicated server in a Google data center just to handle my extensive watch history.
YouTube isn’t without its flaws. Content creators sometimes face unfair strikes and takedowns, and some users report problematic video suggestions. Personally, I haven’t experienced the negative suggestions, as my recommendations are generally excellent, likely due to actively curating my viewing preferences and training the algorithm. Those who use YouTube without logging in or without engaging with the algorithm may encounter less desirable results, which is understandable.
No technology is perfect, and at YouTube’s immense scale, even a small percentage of problematic suggestions can translate to a significant number. Despite these issues, my appreciation for YouTube remains strong.
However, there’s a peculiar issue with YouTube that I feel is important to highlight. While not a major concern overall, it’s an anomaly that really shouldn’t exist, particularly regarding privacy expectations within households using YouTube Premium Family Plan.
This issue centers around the YouTube Premium Family Plan, designed to allow multiple Google accounts within a household to enjoy Premium benefits at a reduced cost compared to individual subscriptions. With the Family Plan, each linked account gains ad-free viewing and other Premium features while maintaining distinct profiles – separate watch histories and the ability to watch different content simultaneously (unlike individual Premium accounts limited to one device at a time).
The strange occurrence arises when the viewing activity of one account within the Family Plan starts influencing the video suggestions of other accounts, despite the expectation of complete separation.
This often becomes apparent when a Family Plan member notices unusual topics appearing in their suggestions – subjects they’ve never shown interest in. Upon comparing notes, it often turns out that another member of the Family Plan has been watching videos related to that very topic. In essence, the viewing habits of member A are bleeding into the suggestions for member B, and so on across the plan.
While in many instances this might be a minor annoyance, or even lead to unexpected discovery of new interests, it does raise significant privacy considerations. It’s not ideal for the viewing habits of family members to become intertwined without explicit consent or knowledge. The potential for family friction arising from this unintended sharing of viewing preferences is quite evident.
This issue with the Family Plan has persisted for years, and I have personally raised this concern with Google/YouTube in the past. The responses I’ve received have consistently been along the lines of “it’s not supposed to happen” or “it can’t happen,” yet the problem remains unresolved.
And indeed, it continues to occur (I received a recent report just this morning). It’s a glitch that, while not catastrophic, is certainly not trivial, and it’s something that YouTube should definitely address and rectify.
–Lauren–
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