Never watched them myself, and doubt anyone did with my account, but I sometimes get such videos presented as if it is something I'd want. I have had lodgers and sometimes have guests who will obviously have appeared from my IP addresses while on my wireless so that may be part of why I get certain things (one of the lodgers was Italian - that was many years ago, and I still occasionally get adverts in the language). Also it only takes one accidental click to register as “engagement” - maybe I have done that with a slip of the mouse/finger at some point.
It's also possible that the videos you do watch are similar to people who _also_ watch those pimple popping vidoes, and so the algorithm guesses that you might also enjoy it.
Maybe, in which case I'd be interested to see where the cross-over is.
Though I've had them come up on facebook too, which is why I'm erring on it being someone more actively engaged coming from my main IP address (home has had the same /29 for the last 10+ years). Unless youtube and facebook are fairly directly sharing information, I thought it more likely that someone has interacted with such content in both places than both algorithms making an obscure link. Of course, it could be that there is a cross-over, and it is a strong enough signal that both sets of data miners have picked up on it.
Edit: too early in the morning and my mind is refusing to switch tracks… Thinking about it, liking certain horror/scifi films is a potential link. Maybe people more heavily into body-horror than I are generally fascinated by real aspects of bodily function too.
You can see your YouTube watch history through the account settings. I've found the watch recommendations are VERY sensitive to oddball videos watched a long time ago. Through the same interface though, you should be able to seek out and delete watch history for garbage that may throw off your recommendations. It's mostly worked for me.
Watch history now include videos you've only hovered over. Very annoying since if you hover over something and then watch it later it doesn't start from the beginning, it starts from where it left off from the hover.
Interesting. I have autoplay turned off in my browser, & I don't get recommendations of the like you mention, which makes me think that that's enough to keep that "feature" from activating.
