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I'm considering making a YouTube channel, but I would like it to be anonymous. (In part because I'm a private person and in part because if I discuss politics or religion I don't want potentially offended people knowing who I am or getting my email address.) My plan was to add a new YouTube channel (with its own Google Plus page) that is managed by my personal Google account. This way it would be convenient for me to manage that and switch to using my personal YouTube account for regular use from YouTube.com without having multiple logins and accounts. Also I thought since I already have an Analytics account, a Play Store developer account, and I've purchased items from Google on the play store all with my personal account, it would be ready and easy for me to use that same account if I wanted to enable monitization of the YouTube channel at some point.

As far as I can tell, if I would make this new YouTube channel it would appear totally anonymous despite being managed by my personal account. Is this correct?

A side concern is that I have heard a while back that someone filed a fake copyright complaint about someone's YouTube video and that allowed them to access the uploader's personal information, is that also a possibility?

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As far as I can tell, if I would make this new YouTube channel it would appear totally anonymous despite being managed by my personal account. Is this correct?

yes.

A side concern is that I have heard a while back that someone filed a fake copyright complaint about someone's YouTube video and that allowed them to access the uploader's personal information, is that also a possibility?

If you file a counter notification, the claimant does get your personal information, because the only way of keeping content down after receiving a counter notification is through going to court.
Claimants however do not just get your personal information handed if they file a takedown notification; quite the opposite in fact: You get to know their email address so you can contact them.

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  • "If you file a counter notification, the claimant does get your personal information, because the only way of keeping content down after receiving a counter notification is through going to court." I didn't quite understand that part, could you explain this? What is a counter notification and what do you mean by keeping content down? Is that just disputing a copyright claim? And I mean what personal information, the email address on the account? I'd assume if I monetize even a separate account Google'd have my info. Whereas if I chose to email them I could use any other address.
    – Uncle
    Mar 17, 2017 at 22:53
  • There are two different copyright things on YouTube: ContentID (CID) claims and DMCA notices. CID is only available for trusted copyright holders. You can dispute claims happening in it and play ball back and forth, but there are no real punishments for you and you can mostly stay anonymous. DMCA on the other hand is part of US copyright law, and because of that, the concept of anonymity doesn't apply, and going to court is the final destination if you and a different party can't get to agree on something. Mar 18, 2017 at 21:24
  • So someone files a DMCA complaint and you email them to get them to revoke it and they refuse, and you don't want the video taken down, you refute the claim with Google in which case the original person gets all your personal information? Can any random person file the claim and get the information?
    – Uncle
    Mar 20, 2017 at 17:13

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