Tech Tuesday -YouTube Privacy Settings -Beware Bears Lair!

Kawartha Lakes Mums - Innaccurate YouTube Privacy Advice!

Kawartha Lakes Mums Want Your YouTube Confidential? Sorry it is not possible.


Bears' Lair- a great local version of The Dragon's Den welcomes submissions of business plans along with a Youtube in a competition to win huge prizes in business advertising and services. However, somehow someone on the committe has been sadly misinformed about the privacy settings on YouTube Channels.  This post is meant to clarify privacy settings on YouTube before millions of viewers discover your supposedly 'confidential' business video, or even more startling - a very private video meant only for a certain someone. It also passes along advice on protecting your business idea -something sadly missing in The Bears' Lair website.

Bears Lair YouTube Advisory Misleading

Bear's Lair offers the following misleading YouTube confidentiality advice in their submissions advice:

To keep your business idea confidential, and only seen by judges go to our website www.BearsLair.ca for a video instruction on how to create and submit an unlisted video if you like. 

That's as far as I got in my reading when the sirens started going off - Ohh boy, what a mess this could create if everyone started beleving ths! The next section was even further misleading:

In summary save your Video as Public or Unlisted DO NOT SAVE IT AS Private or the judges will not be able to see it.

Bears' Lair Advised of Misleading Information 

I posted the following note to Bears' Lair.

You have an error in your submission of Youtbe video. Makng your youtube video unlisted does not keep it confidential. To keep it confidential, you must post it as private, and list the email address of only the people you wish to view it. This still does not ensure confidentiality, if that person chooses to show it to other people. 

Greater confidentiality can be achieved by submitting your entry on a jump drive. It is important not to mislead people into thinking that having their YouTube as unlisted keeps it private - It is not private. Even videos preserved off line can easily become public. 

How to Protect Your Business Idea 

Anything shared is not confidential. A person would be better advised to protect their copyright prior to submission, by mailing a copy of their submission, and any proto types via Registered mail to themselves, and keep it sealed until such time as they need to prove it in a court of law. However, I digress.

Three YouTube Settings - None Truly Confidential

Here are examples of  YouTubes posted with each of the YouTube Privacy settings:

• Regular YouTube : Dream Centre Bargains - shows in searches and related videosu
• Unlisted YouTube, TD Miracle Network Fundraiser -Anyone Wth a link can see this
• Private YouTube -Only people you choose can view.

Want to see the private YouTube? Subscribe to Kawartha Lakes Mums, and reply to any email you receive. I will add you to the list of people allowed to see the private video.

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