Google Told to Turn Over User Data of YouTube

By Miguel Helft
New York Times

A federal judge has ordered Google to turn over to Viacom its records of which users watched which videos on YouTube, the Web’s largest video site by far.

The order raised concerns among YouTube users and privacy advocates that the video viewing habits of tens of millions of people could be exposed. But 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.

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Source URL:
http://www.freepress.net/node/42182

Publisher URL:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/04/technology/04youtube.html?