A thing I was not aware about embedding Youtube videos so far was that even when visitors do not click on the video, they are already tracked by Google. Visiting the page in which the video is embedded is enough to get tracked. But it doesn’t have to be that way as there’s a “privacy enhanced” way to embed Youtube videos.
The option is quite hidden but activated quite easily once one knows it is there: After clicking on “embed” below the video, clicking on “more” reveals the “enable-privacy enhanced mode” option. Here’s how the code to embed the video looks with and without “privacy-enhanced” mode activated:
Default: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JC-cyoqKjpQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Privacy Enhanced: <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/JC-cyoqKjpQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Obviously one can’t expect Google to make it the default so kudos they are at least offering an opt out. It makes me wonder, however, if they are doing it out of their own free will!?