I just went through every forum page concerning the topic of why our youtube accounts must be linked to our google accounts (if existing, I created this account only for the reason of this comment; not going to use youtube anymore), and I noticed, that not a single of these posts was ever answered; neither by youtube nor by google.

I I must say, I was a grand fan of youtube, and loved it, was happy bout everything, even the new layout, never had anything to
complain about until now.

And I, and i gather many people to want to know:
WHY DO WE HAVE TO LINK OUR YOUTUBE ACCOUNT TO A GOOGLE ACCOUNT?

I am going to post a collection of some of the comlaints (not naming users who posted them) given in this forum, and i ask everyone who wants to know why we are beeing forced to link the acounts/or to even create accounts to post something here, or to like this question, maybee if enough people do, google/youtube will react.

So here some of the complaints:
"As you have now forced a link to gmail from youtube, the rest of my family cannot access our youtube account unless they also sign into my personal email account too. If for the sake of privacy (not a word google understands) I log out of my email, no one else can use our account to favourite things or rate videos.

Please fix this, so that multiple accounts can run, or preferably as it was before, an optional service. My partner used to "like" things so I could come back and watch them after work - now she would have to write a list of urls. Obviously this is ridiculous.

Is there a reason you felt it necessary to force this on us when the linking was already having such problems as an optional thing? I know you want to reap the data, why claim it is for security? If my unlinked youtube account is comprimised it would not have meant my email was too, however now linked if one account is compromised then my personal email account will be at risk too.

Also I have a friend who uploads videos and has been the recipient of false DMCA claims. He has pointed out to me that if his accounts are linked and he gets another false DMCA he will not be able to access his email to try to resolve the issue. How short sighted these implementations seem. "


"I think at the very least we should have the option of choosing an email address as to where YouTube sends any info. My Gmail account is not the email I primarily use. I simply have it as a backup in case somebody tries to send something and it won't be picked up by my regular email. This forced linking is ridiculous and not only is there no way of opting out, but there is also no possibility of adding another email address and choosing which one should be the primary."

"On the side of those who don't want to be linked. There are many GROUP youtube accounts. whether it be a family or a club, individuals within those groups do not want to have to share their personal accounts. Sure they can make a new one but that entails the hassle of creating a new name or email but that means losing the original, intended (and many times sentimental) username. Although this seems simple enough it's the principle of it all. And as an entity that such strongly advocates the protection of privacy, I'm sure that this is not hard to understand."

"This is rather a complaint then a question. I never wanted a google account. I just wanted a youtube account. After having my account locked because i refused to set up a google account, i was extremely extremely infuriated. I cannot even stress how angry i am at this decision on behalf of youtube and google. It should be a persons choice on whether they want to have a google account, not yours. I repeat, it is not your decision on whether i should have a google account. If possible, i would like to have my google account removed immediately, and leave my account be as it was before. I do not see any purpose whatsoever with the linkage of a google account. What stressed me more was having to link a google account, just to try and search for help on how to remove it, and why it is necessary. I was happy without it, and i am absolutely enraged with this decision to have to do this, because i dont want it. Please re-think this choice, because i dont have one."

"I do have a Google Account for Gmail and Google Documents.  However, my Google account is for what I would deem 'official' activities like receiving billing statements and staying in contact with professional contacts.  For me, Youtube is a vehicle for entertainment and occasionally educational/informational use, it has great utility but no possible overlap with my business or financial affairs.  I think having the option to link a Youtube and a Google Account is a great feature, but not having the option to keep a Youtube account separate from a Google Account actually decreases the overall utility of both services for me.

For example, logging into Youtube with my newly linked (by ultimatum) account now seems to automatically log me into every Google Account linked service under the account linked to my Youtube account.  This happened even though I was previously logged into a different Google account to use Gmail.  This is the sort of use case that I would think should give developers some pause.  What happens when I click a Youtube link sent to me via gmail on a different Google account than the one linked to my Youtube account?  It seems I will be switched to the other account in Gmail so that when I finish watching the clip and go back to Gmail I'm not going to see the mail I was looking at before but any mail that may have been sent to my alternate account..."

"If this new method is supposed to be so "secure," why is my Google password the most vulnerable password I have? I stinkin' ROCK at having strong 6 character passwords, but my 8 letter passwords are real English words that are just marginally stronger than the argument Google is putting up for why FORCED account linking is a good thing. Seriously, if you're going to force me to link the accounts, at least let me keep the stronger password! I am sorry to say that I cannot link my accounts as it actually makes me more vulnerable to hackage."


"I use my Google account ONLY for the calendar to manage my work schedule, mainly.  I use it for nothing else, and has no relation to my YouTube accounts.  Linking them together is clunky, and only complicates matters.  I have FOUR YouTube accounts.  If I link them all to the same Google account, how am I supposed to log into one instead of the other three?  Or do I have to create another three separate, purposeless Google accounts?  Explain that to me, please.

Even then, YouTube is only pestering me about my original account which was registered using a different email than my Google account.  It doesn't pester me about the account registered with the SAME email as the Google account.  If any two were to be linked, it would be them, but again, there is no need to associate the two accounts.  They have nothing to do with one another, and I prefer keeping these things separate.  I'm sick and tired of having to register on every site I goto in order to just use the site to its fullest potential.  Now, I have to create another account to use the account I already have?"


TO BE CONTINUED