01 / Before you begin
Before you begin
Settings and available choices can vary by device, app version, account and region.
02 / The right account
Start with the correct Google account
The account watching a video may not be the channel uploading it. Check the active account first. A creator's channel settings are not a substitute for a viewer's history and advertising settings.
03 / Watch & search history
Manage watch/search history, not just recommendations
Desktop: My Activity → YouTube History → Manage history. Delete individual items or choose DELETE for a period. Period deletion also removes searches in that period. Use Auto-delete, choose the offered retention period, then Next → Confirm. Under Controls, turn history off or review separate options for watched videos, searches, and voice/audio activity. Pausing future saving is different from deleting existing history. Removing relevant watch history can change or remove Home recommendations.
Mobile: YouTube profile photo → Settings → Manage all history → Controls. Review the watched-video and search options independently. Official watch-history instructions, mobile version. These controls are not a promise that all operational records disappear.
04 / Ad personalization
Ad personalization is a separate choice
Open My Ad Center, choose Personalized ads → Off, and confirm. Non-personalized ads can still use context such as the current video's topic. Turning this off is not an ad blocker or deletion request. Signed-out browser/device controls have a narrower scope; check signed-out TVs and phones separately. How personalized ads work, My Ad Center overview.
If you prefer a narrower choice: My Ad Center → Manage Privacy → Activity used to personalize ads → YouTube History → Use YouTube History to personalize ads → Off, then confirm. History can still be saved and recommendations can remain personalized. Data used for ads. Pausing YouTube History itself is a separate choice.
05 / Creator AI permission
Creators: check third-party training permission
Channel owners can review YouTube Studio → Settings → Channel → Advanced settings → Third-party training. Leave the permission to train third-party AI models unchecked if you do not want to grant it; save changes. Channel settings.
YouTube says this permission is off by default. Eligibility requires public video visibility and permission from applicable rights holders. This is permission for third-party companies, not a general opt-out from Google's own AI processing. API changes can take seven days; YouTube acknowledges it cannot ultimately control what independent companies do. This does not establish reversal of past training or physically prevent scraping. Your content and third-party training.
Partner Content Manager administrators use a different management surface. This creator setting is not a viewer-history control.
06 / Video visibility
Public, unlisted and private are not interchangeable
YouTube Studio → Content → Visibility: choose Public, Private or Unlisted and save. Anyone with an unlisted link can view and reshare it; it is not invited-people-only sharing. Private restricts viewing to chosen people, but YouTube systems and reviewers can still review it for specified moderation, copyright and advertising purposes. Review playlists and existing uploads, not just the next upload.
Video visibility. This is public exposure control, not deletion or an all-AI control.
07 / Regional controls
Check additional regional controls where available
For EU users, Google documents Google Account → Data & privacy → Data sharing → Linked Google services. Review selected services → Next → Confirm → Done. This affects certain cross-service uses and is not a third-party sharing switch or an all-data firewall. Some services are always linked. This is not a worldwide setting.
Manage linked services. Age and supervised-account rules can also change which ad controls appear; missing personalization switches do not automatically mean ads are being personalized.
08 / What remains
What these settings cannot promise
Google's policy, effective October 16, 2026, describes activity, device and connection information, including IP addresses, and data associated with identifiers when signed out. It also describes using publicly available information to train its AI models. That does not establish that every private upload or watch event trains every model. History, ad controls and the third-party creator permission are not a universal AI or tracking off switch. Google Privacy Policy.
09 / The Grav difference
How Grav differs
For everyday sharing with chosen people, Grav's policy describes audience choices, chronological feeds and no ads. Grav is not a like-for-like replacement for YouTube's public video library. Grav Messages are server-backed and stored to operate the service; audience controls do not mean zero storage. For more detail, read Grav’s Privacy Proof Center.
Sources & references
Original documentation behind this guide, last checked October 29, 2026. A source check is not necessarily a change to the advice.
Change history
Added viewer history, advertising, upload-visibility, regional linked-service and creator third-party-training controls, with their separate scopes.
If a label or policy has changed, tell us what you found. Please do not send private photos, passwords or account details.