RegretsReporter — Mozilla Firefox

What does it do?

The RegretsReporter extension gives you more control over your YouTube experience. RegretsReporter brings YouTube’s algorithmic controls to the forefront of your feed, giving you a simple way to tell YouTube’s algorithm to stop recommending certain videos, and also to report the recommendations that you regret. RegretsReporter is only for people who are 18 or older. This extension is part of a crowdsourced investigation into YouTube’s algorithm to learn more about what people regret being recommended and how the algorithm responds to user feedback. You can choose to opt-in to donating your data to support our research upon installing the extension. By contributing your data to our research you can help us improve one of the most powerful recommendation engines on the planet.

How does it work?

RegretsReporter overlays a “stop recommending” button onto the thumbnail of each video that appears in your YouTube recommendations. Pressing this button will send feedback directly to YouTube, telling them that you don’t want to be recommended that type of video in the future. After sending this feedback, you can provide an optional comment to help us learn more about why that recommendation was unwanted. If you choose to opt-in to Mozilla’s crowdsourced research project upon installing the extension, Mozilla will monitor your recommendations to see whether YouTube is really listening to the feedback that you send. This contributes to our advocacy work to put people in control of their experiences with online algorithms.

What kind of data am I donating when I use RegretsReporter?

If you choose to opt-in to Mozilla’s crowdsourced research project, the extension will send Mozilla information about the number of videos you view, your use of features to control your recommendations, and what kinds of videos you are recommended. If you choose to opt-out, Mozilla will not receive any data about your YouTube usage as part of our investigation into YouTube’s algorithm.

We encourage users to read our Privacy Notice for more detailed information about data collected through RegretsReporter.

Is my privacy protected?

Throughout this process, your privacy is paramount. If you opt-in to our research project, the data Mozilla collects is linked to a randomly-generated user ID, not your YouTube account. Your data may be used in Mozilla Foundation's advocacy and campaigning work. It may be shared with organizations working to investigate recommender systems and technologists working to build more trustworthy AI. When we disclose information, we disclose it in a way that minimizes the risk of you being re-identified. The extension gathers no data when you browse in a private browsing window. For more detailed information about your privacy please read the RegretsReporter Privacy Notice.

What will you do with the information from RegretsReporter?

We will use information from the RegretsReporter extension to power our advocacy and campaigning work. Specifically, to hold YouTube and other companies accountable for the AI developed to power their recommendation systems. And, to put people in control of their experiences with online algorithms. In July 2021 Mozilla used RegretsReporter data contributed by 37,380 people to power the largest-ever crowdsourced investigation into harmful recommendations on YouTube. The investigation was covered by more than 170 news outlets across 30 countries and resulted in YouTube making changes to its algorithm and releasing more information to the public about how it works.

Does this work on mobile?

No. Currently this extension is compatible with Firefox and Chrome on desktop only.

Is RegretsReporter available in multiple languages?

RegretsReporter will function no matter what language your YouTube account is set to, and our analysis will include videos in languages other than English. However, the extension interface is only available in English for now.