What is the __Secure-YNID cookie?
Registers a unique ID to maintain user preferences and track interaction with embedded YouTube videos.
Table of Contents
About the __Secure-YNID cookie
| Vendor | |
|---|---|
| Cookie Domain | youtube.com |
| Category Category The functional category of the technology, such as Web Analytics or Social Media. Learn more | Advertising & Paid Media |
| Consent Category Consent Category The consent category this cookie most commonly falls under across sites we scan, normalized into four standard categories. Learn more | Targeting & Advertising |
| Prevalence | Very Common |
| Popularity Popularity Popularity is calculated from our dataset of 4.5B+ cookies analyzed across hundreds of millions of web pages. Learn more | Found on 25.2% of scanned pages |
| Expiration Type | Timestamp |
| Expiration Duration | 27 days |
| Party Type Party Type Whether the cookie is first-party or third-party. Learn more | 3rd-Party |
| Risk Level Risk Level Rates how sensitive the data stored by this cookie is (High, Medium, or Low) based on data classification and distribution. Learn more | High |
| Vendor Privacy Policy | https://policies.google.com/privacy |
| Vendor Website | https://www.google.com |
What is the purpose of the __Secure-YNID cookie?
The __Secure-YNID cookie is set by YouTube (a Google service) and functions as a secure, modern equivalent to the legacy VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE cookie. It is primarily used on websites that embed YouTube videos to maintain user preferences, estimate available bandwidth, and ensure the basic functionality of the video player. Additionally, Google uses this cookie to detect and resolve problems with the YouTube service by collecting analytics data on how users interact with embedded media.
Because the cookie tracks user behavior across multiple third-party domains where YouTube videos are embedded, the collected data can also be used by Google for targeted advertising and personalization. Depending on a user's Google ad settings, interactions recorded by this cookie inform the recommendation algorithms and targeted advertisements served to the user across the Google ecosystem. The __Secure- prefix indicates that the cookie is transmitted exclusively over encrypted HTTPS connections, providing an additional layer of security against unauthorized access.
What are the Privacy Risks of the __Secure-YNID cookie?
Risk Level: High
This cookie is categorized as High risk because it acts as a persistent cross-site identifier set by a major third-party advertising network (Google). It supports behavioral data collection regarding video consumption and user interactions across different domains, which Google can aggregate with other profile data to serve highly personalized, targeted advertisements. The sharing of this pseudonymous or potentially identifiable behavioral data with a third party poses significant privacy risks.
How to Remove the __Secure-YNID cookie from a Website
To remove this cookie, website administrators must remove or disable the embedded YouTube video players and YouTube API (iframe) scripts from their site's source code, since the cookie is set by those YouTube components and cannot be disabled independently while they remain on the page. Administrators can reduce cookie deployment by using YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed mode (changing the iframe embed domain from youtube.com to youtube-nocookie.com), which limits or defers cookie setting until the user interacts with the player, though this mode does not guarantee that no cookies are set. If video hosting via YouTube is required, the only way to fully prevent this cookie is to stop embedding YouTube players and switch to an alternative hosting approach.