The channel name is a unique identifier of your channel on this and all the other instances. It's as unique as an email address, which makes it easy for other people to interact with it.
The recently added video <x id="START_LINK"/><x id="INTERPOLATION"/><x id="CLOSE_LINK"/> has been <x id="START_LINK_1"/>automatically blocked<x id="CLOSE_LINK"/>
the sharing system used for this video implies that some technical information about your system (such as a public IP address) can be sent to other peers.