Een federale rechter in de VS beval Google eerder deze week om gegevens van YouTube-gebruikers over te dragen aan Viacom (het mediabedrijf waarvan onder andere MTV deel uitmaakt). Door deze beslissing zal Viacom over de gebruikersgegevens van tientallen miljoenen YouTube-gebruikers beschikken. Het gaat wel degelijk over élke video die werd bekeken sinds de lancering van YouTube in 2005.

Uit een artikel dat vandaag in de New York Times verscheen:

"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."

Viacom beweert dat ze de data niet zullen gebruiken om YouTube-gebruikers op te sporen, maar enkel willen nagaan in welke mate het succes van YouTube werd bepaald door (copyrighted) filmpjes die op de site gepost werden.

Nog een interessante/onrustwekkende passage uit het NYT-artikel:

"In 2006, after AOL released for research purposes the search records of thousands of anonymous users, reporters from The New York Times were able to track down one person by analyzing her search queries. Mr. Opsahl said anonymous viewing habits may similarly yield clues about the identity of viewers."

De Electronic Frontier Foundation houdt de zaak alvast in de gaten:

"It is encouraging to see that both Viacom and Google are responding to the important privacy interest raised by the court's order. We plan to continue discussions with the parties on ways to protect the privacy of the YouTube users and ensure that their rights under the Video Privacy Protection Act are given effect."