YouTube Ready To Give Up Your Personal Browsing Info
Jul 7th, 2008 | By James Lewin | Category: Featured Story, General, Internet TV, Streaming Video, Video 
A few days ago, we suggested that YouTube Needs To Grow A Spine, arguing that YouTube needed to “unequivocally state that they will defend your right to privacy, even if that means taking this all the way to the Supreme Court”:
Your library shouldn’t share what books you read. Your video store shouldn’t share what movies you rent. Your phone company shouldn’t spy on you without due process.
And YouTube shouldn’t share your personal viewing information, for any reason, ever.
YouTube & Google had an opportunity to make clear that they would not share your personal video browsing information with Viacom.
Instead, the company says it’s adding a Privacy link to their site, while it says it will provide information on your private viewing history to Viacom.
What happened to “Don’t be evil”? Viacom could could use this information to “pull an RIAA” and sue you and others for downloading copyrighted media.
YouTube Need To Grow A Spine, If Not More
Now others are starting to weigh in, and it looks like we are not alone in thinking that YouTube needs to grow a spine, if not more:
- InfoWorld says Google should defy the court order. “Has it struck anyone else that Google has been rather weak-kneed in its response to the court order requiring it to turn over YouTube viewing logs to Viacom? The company appears to be rolling over with a feeble plea that Viacom allow them to “anonymize” the data they yield.”
- Out-Law notes that Google is ready to give up your personal info, but they’ve protected “the source code that lies behind YouTube’s search system”.
- TechTree says YouTube is Giving Away Users
- The Wall Street Journal suggests that this is the end of Internet privacy.
YouTube & Google have been getting a free ride from most tech pundits, who are happy to criticize Viacom as a greedy conglomerate, but afraid to criticize a popular Internet service provider like YouTube.
This is a dangerous attitude.
If Google’s willing to serve up your personal viewing history to Viacom, what will they do when someone comes asking for your Google Mail history, or the history of what you’ve been searching for, or your Google Calendar events, your shopping history, the sites that you follow in Google Reader or where you’ve been going (via your iPhone and Google maps)?
If Google won’t stand up for your right to privacy now, you can’t expect them to do it at all.
Absolutely Jim. The last paragraph says it all. It sets a president. Another thing I’d be concerned of is that Viacom will now have my information. The court just granted them one of the world’s biggest digital databases, the value of which can not be underestimated.
Fun fun… like the Wall Street Journal suggests… maybe it’s the end of internet privacy.
Ed – I hate to sound like chicken little – but it’s something we should be talking about.
Add me to the chorus of bloggers who agree with your post of a couple of days ago. I posted about it today, especially since there is the perfect storm of the FISA vote in the Senate today. All these things are connected and are all equally insidious.
People are still blinded by Google’s “don’t be evil” motto.
That went out the door a long time ago.
Censoring China and selling out your privacy are pretty much evil.
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: https://www.thepoint.com/campaigns/stop-viacom-from-invading-our-you-tube-privacy