I don‘t know about you, but I‘ve been absolutely floored by some of the viewership statistics coming out of YouTube lately.
As your resident cybersecurity guru and privacy advocate, I feel compelled to break down the relentless growth of spending on this platform – and equip you with best practices for staying secure.
Because when billions of videos are uploaded and seen daily, threats unfortunately won‘t be far behind.
Let‘s dive in…
An Avalanche of Uploads
YouTube crossed over 2 billion monthly active users back in 2020. And boy, are they uploading a ton of videos!
Around 720,000 hours of fresh content now hits YouTube every single day.
For some context:
| Year | Daily Upload Volume |
|---|---|
| 2014 | 300,000 hours |
| 2016 | 400,000 hours |
| 2018 | 500,000 hours |
| 2020 | 720,000 hours |
As you can see, uploads have absolutely skyrocketed over the past several years.
In fact, over 500 hours of video get packed onto YouTube‘s servers every minute! That‘s the equivalent of:
- 30,000 videos per hour
- 500 videos per minute
- ~8 new videos every second
Other social media giants simply pale in comparison here:
- Facebook: 300+ million photos per day
- Instagram: 100+ million photos & videos per day
For video in particular, YouTube stands completely unchallenged when it comes to upload volume and regular viewership.
Speaking of watching videos…
Consuming an Ocean of Content
Across smart TVs alone, YouTube serves up 250 million video watching hours daily.
And that‘s not even counting views on mobile, desktop or any other devices!
It‘s also worth calling out differences across video categories and formats here:
| Category | % of Total Views |
|---|---|
| Music | 32% |
| Gaming | 15% |
| Entertainment News | 15% |
YouTube Shorts also rack up an incredible 15 billion daily views – and that format didn‘t even exist until 2020!
Finally, over 30% of internet users now watch at least one live stream on YouTube per week.
And during 2020‘s lockdowns, daily live stream views grew by a whopping 45%!
As you can see, videos on YouTube don‘t just get uploaded – they very much get watched and engaged with on a mind-bending scale.
Why This Growth Spells Privacy Trouble
With such an avalanche of video uploads and views, privacy risks are escalated substantially:
Uploading personal videos makes your intimate life details public – including events, locations, relationships, children, and more. Default privacy settings often make clips public forever with no view restrictions.
Watching videos means your viewing data gets collected by YouTube to serve you targeted ads and reccomendations. Connected accounts like your Google profile only widen data access further.
And the devices used to facilitate all this uploading and watching introduce another vector for malware through poisoned links, downloads, and questionable third-party apps.
As growth continues exponentially year-over-year, threats to personal privacy will only climb higher for the average user.
So what can be done?
Best Practices: Video Privacy & Security
While YouTube presents incredible connectivity and entertainment value, we can‘t forget smart privacy and security habits in the process.
Here are a few tips:
Adjust Upload Settings
- Tighten default privacy
- Restrict potential audiences
- Leverage whitelist/blacklist filters
- Set explicit expiration dates
Practice Safe Browsing
- Vet links & downloads for malware
- Use VPNs and antivirus protection
- Beware of phishing attempts
Lock Accounts & Devices
- Enable 2FA authentication
- Change passwords regularly
- Limit connected app permissions
Routinely Check Activity
- Scan settings for unauthorized changes
- Review login IPs for unknown locations
- Check Google dashboard for odd links
And for parents allowing kids on the platform:
- Explore YouTube Kids as safer alternative
- Set screen time limits appropriately
- Preview videos before approval
While staying completely off the YouTube grid may not be realistic for most, following the above tips will help protect your privacy and security during a time of unprecedented growth.
If anything is ever unclear or you need help securing accounts or devices, please reach out! I‘m always happy to help friends and neighbors strengthen their cyber safety practices.