Category: Technology Author : Duncan Riley Posted: July 2, 2008
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Google has been ordered to hand over details of every video ever watched on YouTube to Viacom, along with user names and IP addresses.
The decision was handed down by the United States District Court (Southern District of New York) in the ongoing Viacom action against YouTube, according to a report at Wired.
Google argued that handing over the data would invade its users’ privacy, however the judge ignored the argument. The EFF has already labeled the decision a violation of the Video Privacy Protection act that “threatens to expose deeply private information.”
A full copy of the decision below. Although the data’s primary use is for Viacom to show that the majority of items viewed on YouTube are copyright infringing items, it also means that Viacom now has access to identifying information on the people who watched that content as well.
Jul 3, 2008
Oh my gosh .. my 6-year old daughter watched some clips of “Clifford the bid red dog” on Youtube. How do I explain to her that she will now be going to jail for that ?
Jul 8, 2008
This is a complete invasion of privacy on the part of Viacom and our user information doesn’t have any relevance to their billion dollar lawsuit against Google. Google should be able to anatomize the user information before handing over 12 terabytes of personal information so my privacy and the privacy of millions like me are protected. I have a campaign that will force Viacom to allow Google/YouTube to protect us or 100,000 will boycott Viacom and all its subsidiaries: .