Google Ordered To Turn Over All YouTube User Data

Well it was bound to happen, Google got spanked by a federal judge and ordered to turn over all data on what YouTube users watched to Viacom. That’s every bit of data on every single video ever watched since 2005. I guess Viacom got ahold of the RIAA playbook. With the media giants burning the candle at both ends eventually it’s going to melt.

Google and Viacom said they were hoping to come up with a way to protect the anonymity of the site’s visitors. Viacom also said that the information would be safeguarded by a protective order restricting access to the data to outside lawyers, who will use it solely to press Viacom’s $1 billion copyright suit against Google.

Still, the judge’s order, which was made public late Wednesday, renewed concerns among privacy advocates that Internet companies like Google are collecting unprecedented amounts of private information that could be misused or fall unexpectedly into the hands of third parties.

“These very large databases of transactional information become honey pots for law enforcement or for litigants,” said Chris Hoofnagle, a senior fellow at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology.

Welcome to the 21st Century folks, if it didn’t know it by now, any rights you think had, well they’re pretty much non-existent.

Google Told to Turn Over User Data of YouTube [New York Times]

Statement From The EFF