I've been seeing some posts about getting hit with, what seem to be, fake? weird? strange privacy complaints from, seemingly, the real YouTube Support? Well, it happened to me too! I haven't ever received a complaint before so I got in the creator support chat and inquired if the email was real or not since it ended in @ support.youtube.com, and they did say it was a real email from YouTube.

That being said, I checked the video they linked me, which was a real video of mine, and alas, there was no indication in YouTube Studio that any action of any kind had been taken on the video. In the email, there was also no indication of a specific time where there was a "violation," only a strange, phone-number-esque set of numbers instead. Here's the email I was sent for context:

____________________________________________________

Hi Crossing Crafts,

This is to notify you that we have received a privacy complaint from an individual regarding your content:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZ7A1tBukbA

The information reported as violating privacy is at 1-210-816-6121

Please note that the violation may also occur in the title, video description, channel image or background.

We would like to give you an opportunity to remove or edit the private information that might be present within the content reported. This notification informs you that another user has raised a privacy concern about your content, however, it will not automatically result in your video(s) being restricted, and no associated penalty has been applied to your video at this time. We would like to give you an opportunity to remove or edit the private information that might be present within the content reported. After 48 hours of this notice, we will review the complaint for violations of our Privacy Guidelines and consider restricting the content.

Please note that you may not need to remove the content entirely in order to resolve the issue. YouTube offers a Custom Blurring tool, which allows you to blur anything in your video, including individuals or information. For more information on the blurring feature, visit this Help Center article. Please also check the title, description, video tags, channel image or background for relevant personal information. YouTube offers metadata editing tools which you can access by going to My Videos and clicking the Edit button on the reported video.

We're committed to protecting our users, and we hope you understand the importance of respecting others' privacy. When uploading videos in the future, please remember not to post someone’s personal information without their consent. For more information, please review our Privacy Guidelines.

Sincerely,

The YouTube Legal Support Team

____________________________________________________

I'm not scared of my video being taken down for violating privacy cause I was literally just making a tissue box cover in it, LMAO, there wasn't anything that was in violation of YouTube's rules, but I wanted to post about it just in case. That being said, it still is a bit nerve wracking since I did talk to creator chat and having them tell me it was indeed real, being from @ support.youtube.com, with a real link back to my video, a link back to a google help article, but having the email itself not tell me exactly what the violation was is all a big stink in my brain.

Any help or commentary would be appreciated, hopefully it's just a troll, random flag, or a mistake on behalf of YouTube!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :::::::UPDATE::::::

So I commented this, but it seems a few people haven’t seen it, so here’s the update:

I emailed YouTube about this, described the problem and that other YouTubers were experiencing this, and provided a screenshot of the email I received. This is their response:

——————-

Hi Diana,

Thanks for reaching out.

This is Stacey, your support specialist. I hope you're doing well.

We know you are concerned about receiving a privacy complaint on a specific video. We understand how important this is to you. Do not worry! We will definitely find ways to resolve or share the best possible solution.

To give you a little background, YouTube is serious about protecting our users by addressing potential privacy concerns. Our privacy guidelines apply to all users across the world. In other words, while the video in question may not violate your country's privacy laws, it may still violate YouTube's privacy guidelines.

We are here to share more information on how YouTube's privacy process works.

When a privacy complaint is filed, YouTube may give the uploader an opportunity to remove or edit the private information within their video. We will notify the uploader about the potential violation and may, at YouTube's discretion, give them 48 hours to act on the complaint. During this time, the creator can utilize the Trim or Blur tools available on YouTube Studio. If the uploader chooses instead to remove the video, the complaint will be closed. If the potential privacy violation remains, the YouTube Team will then review the complaint.

In your case, we highly recommend you to take appropriate action provided on the email notification you have received from our privacy team to resolve the issue.

You may visit this helpful page to learn more information about YouTube Privacy Guidelines.

Thank you for trusting and giving us the opportunity to assist you. It's been a pleasure working with you. Know that you're always welcome to reach out to us anytime should you have any concerns in the future.

Wishing you all the best. Stay safe and healthy.

Regards, Stacey

Google YouTube Team —————————-

So basically, they said literally nothing LMAO. In the original email, it doesn’t give any indication what the privacy violation is, where to find it, so my conclusion is it’s nothing to be worried about for anyone who is affected. Unfortunately it seems more people were issued these than I thought at first, but the complaints all seem to be unfounded and cast at random, so I don’t think any of us have a reason to be nervous.

After reading more comments, everyone is getting a similar phone number, so a real person is filing these complaints, but they’re most likely a troll and they leave their phone number instead of a real timestamp for the “privacy violation.”

TLDR: I reached out to YouTube in several ways, each time they confirmed these are real emails from the real YouTube support with real privacy violations being filed, but the person/people filing them are very likely to be a troll. This is not a back end glitch or anything, it’s almost certainly a troll that’s sliding through the algorithm and filing complaints on any video they feel like. They’re leaving a phone number instead of a time stamp, so nothing will happen to your channel lmao. The 48 hour investigation window for me has long past and nothing ever happened to my video, even during the investigatory period.

Thanks for all your input, don’t worry, your video is most likely safe, and best of luck with your channels. Cheers!