How does YouTube track your viewing activity?

[jj1984]

Hello,

I'm not quite sure where to post this, so I'll post here.

I noticed that YouTube doesn't seem to store cookies on your computer.

I used ccleaner to check what cookies are stored, and a bunch showed up.

But YouTube's was not among them.

Though, if I log into YouTube using my Google account, YouTube seems to track my activity.

For example, if I watch video 1, and at the X minute mark switch over to watch video 2, when I go back to video 1 at some point in the future, YouTube starts the video from the X minute mark where I left it originally.

This doesn't happen if I'm not logged in which further supports the theory that YouTube doesn't use cookies.

So, how exactly does YouTube track your activity on their servers?

 

[Cromewell]

You would have to ask Google. But I think it is fair to say they store everything in their massive database of stuff you do.