Clear Your YouTube Viewing History, Workaround

Did you know that YouTube saves information about every video that you view on the video hosting site when you are logged into your Google account and also when you are not? And that those video views are saved indefinitely by the service?

The saving of YouTube video views may be a privacy issue to some users. While you could say that logging out of your account after using the computer resolves the issue, it is not that easy. Why? Because YouTube keeps track of viewed videos even if you are not logged into a Google account or a YouTube account.

Just visit the site, make sure you are not logged in and start watching a video. Once you are finished visit the YouTube History page. You should see that video listed there along with other videos that you have watched in the past while logged out of your Google or YouTube account.

YouTube uses cookies to monitor a user’s viewing history even if they are not logged in. Is that a privacy issue? I say it is, especially if you are not the only user who uses the computer.

To make matters worse, there is only one option to delete the viewing history. Visit the YouTube viewing history page. Actually, you need to visit the page twice if you watch videos when you are logged in and logged out.

You can delete individual videos by selecting them first and clicking the remove button afterwards, or all videos with a click on the clear all viewing history button.

This triggers the following prompt where you have to confirm the removal.

If you are never logged into Youtube or Google when viewing videos on YouTube, you can clear the viewing history automatically by deleting all YouTube cookies regularly (for instance on shutdown of the browser). Check out How To Clear Individual Cookies In Google Chrome or Selectively Block Cookies on Internet Explorer and Firefox In Realtime).

Users who are logged into their account when they view videos need to clear the viewing history manually regularly if they are concerned about their privacy.

There is another option for users who do not need a YouTube account but want to view videos. The core issue here is that YouTube will record the history when they are logged into other Google services. One option would be to launch YouTube in private browsing mode. Chrome users could use the Ghost Incognito extension to automate that process. This would log out the user automatically when logged in, and also clear cookies and other data on exit.

Does anyone know a better way of clearing YouTube’s viewing history? Let me know in the comments.

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Author: Martin Brinkmann, Friday November 25, 2011 -
Tags:youtube, youtube videos

Responses so far:

1. ódio says:

   November 25, 2011 at 9:10 pm

   we need a config. option like “dont keep videos history”, check box, save. th end.

   Why we dont have this option yet?

   Reply
2. WebHybrid says:

   November 25, 2011 at 9:42 pm

   Fat chance YouTube (which of course is Google-owned) would ever offer a history disable option! I’ve been looking to block the YouTube history with a Firefox add-on. Or maybe a Greasemonkey script or *something* that auto-clears it would be good.

   I searched among official Firefox add-ons and off-Mozilla-site add-ons – found nothing current that’s relevant. Once upon a time there was a Firefox add-on called ‘YouTube History Bleach.’ No longer available.

   Reply
   • WebHybrid says:

     January 9, 2012 at 8:03 pm

     I did come up with a just little bit of extra Firefox convenience for manually clearing the dreaded viewing history.

     Of course some users may already have used this trick for something else. But the ‘Toolbar Buttons’ add-on (I already use anyway) has *options* – never noticed that before. One of them allows you to specify a URL for ‘Favorite Page. Used for the Favorite Page button. Kind of like a second home page.’

     Insert
     https://www.youtube.com/my_history
     into that option field.

     Now you get to slide that Favorite Page button (which looks like a small house with a chain link superimposed at the base) onto the browser’s toolbar or statusbar: very quick access to the process outlined above.

     Reply
     • Martin Brinkmann says:

       January 9, 2012 at 9:11 pm

       You could also add it to the bookmarks bar if you have it displayed.
3. Swapnil says:

   November 26, 2011 at 6:19 am

   Not a problem for me with Opera’s Cookie Manager.

   For me, I can

   1. Go to www.youtube.com
   2. Right-click a blank area and select ‘Edit Site Preferences’.
   3. Select ‘Cookies’ from Edit Site Preferences.
   4. Delete all the current cookies.
   5. Select the checkbox “Delete new cookies when exiting Opera”.

   With that option available – it’s a set and forget task.

   Since I deleted all the current cookies in Step 4, when I browse YouTube it would be ‘new’ cookies that will be stored. So since these cookies are marked as ‘new’ they will be deleted when I close Opera?

   How’s that? Does any other browser offer an option to delete cookies for A PARTICULAR website when exiting?

   Reply
4. boris says:

   November 26, 2011 at 7:19 am

   I blocked YouTube cookie as well. So far no problems.

   Reply