Sharing in case someone somehow sees it here first.

After some research, I discovered that YouTube offers a privacy-enhanced way of embedding videos. Instead of linking to youtube.com, link to youtube-nocookie.com, and no data-collecting HTTP cookie will be sent. This is Google’s way of providing GDPR-compliant YouTube videos.

https://dri.es/how-to-remove-youtube-tracking

YouTube offers a tracking-free embed option. Be kind and use it.