Think beyond the OS/browser. Machines on your local network that ping or access Google could be used to create a identifiable signature. Then they know the whole subnet "fingerprint". New machine, new OS, new browser, same local network, same suggestions.

Its possible that is YouTube isn't building a profile of the user but a profile of that specific invidious instance which is all of its users collectively. Its also possible that invidious is leaking some browser info like User-Agent to YouTube. That way switching IP doesn't matter as long as its the same invidious instance.

Switching invidious instances should clear that up. If not then you've got a serious problem with invidious.

You just change it when you want to drop any profile you developed. ie on browser start. The problem with changing it every page is sites will assume you're a bot and either block you or serve you a captcha on every page.

Would you mind sharing screenshots (or at the very least name specific examples)?

What you're describing is technologically and financially infeasible for Google to do at scale (or even to one specific person). If Google were able to track you that well, they wouldn't modify the recommendations for you, they would quietly add it to an ad profile on you. The only reason the YouTube algorithm exists is to keep people on the platform for longer, when you use invidious, you are losing YouTube money, so they have no financial incentive to modify their algorithm for you.

If you're using a small few person instance, then what you watch can actually influence the recommendations (at least until the token rotates), but that isn't Google tracking you specifically. If you use a more popular instance (like nerdvpn or nadeko) what you watch will do little to influence the front page algorithm.

As I mentioned in my previous comment, I'd suggest you look into how the various privsec technologies you're using actually work, and also look at how companies are actually able to track you. If you just assume a company can do something because they're big, powerful, and scary, suddenly the company seems much bigger, more powerful, and scary than they really are. It's also important to remember that just because something can be used to correlate activity with the user doing, that doesn't mean it's something that can be done at scale.

Judging from your previous posts and comments, it sounds like you're quite new to privacy. This kind of mentality (in one form or another) is very common amongst people who are new to caring about their privacy. Surveillance has been happening for your entire life, so it's not going to hurt to take a bit to think about things with a clearer head. Of course, if you're in a situation where lack of privacy might cause physical harm, find help ASAP, but generally you can take things at a slower pace to help on the long run. That's not to say stop caring at all, but you don't need to suddenly drop everything and move to a bunker in the woods. Too much change at once can lead to privacy fatigue, which only makes it less likely that you'll escape any of the surveillance of the modern world.

Nah, there's no way you can do "leave no traces behind" like in real life, not even the greatest cyber criminal can, whatever you do, you still leaving traces, the reason why they so hard to track is because the "traces" they left is separated and have no link to anyone, nor anything, and that's i think it call anonymity, which is really hard to achieve, at least in the big 2026

I’m not sure you’re picking up what I’m putting down.

You cannot do what you’re trying to do. I don’t know why. Other people can. I can. You can’t. There could be a lot of reasons for that and you’re failing to troubleshoot the problem. None of that is an indictment of you.

Try to do something else: open a container tab (I am a firefox user, so I use Firefox’s container tabs), log into google and watch your videos. Open up a different container tab (again, I am a Firefox user so I have to make a different container to use) and see if the recommendations follow you there.