NEW YORK, NY — A federal judge has ordered Google Inc. to turn over data about YouTube users to Viacom Inc., sparking an outcry from privacy advocates.The order came in the midst of legal wrangling surrounding a $1 billion copyright-infringement lawsuit Viacom filed on behalf of its Paramount and MTV Network subsidiaries against YouTube and its parent company Google.
Judge Louis Stanton of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of new York commanded Google provide as evidence YouTube user information including usernames, users’ IP addresses, what videos they watched and when they watched them.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation voiced outrage about the decision on its blog, saying the order violates the Video Privacy Protection Act of 1988 — which prevents the revelation of consumers’ video buying and viewing habits. The judge’s ruling “threatens to expose deeply private information,” an EFF representative posted to the blog.
After the ruling, both Viacom and Google said they were attempting to work out ways to safeguard YouTube users’ personally identifying information while complying with the judge’s order.
The judge delivered only part of the information Viacom’s petition sought. The comapny said it has no desire to invade anyone’s privacy, but it needs the data to be able to demonstrate video piracy patterns that bolster its case against YouTube.
“Viacom has not asked for and will not be obtaining any personally identifiable information of any user,” the company said in a statement. “Any information that we or our outside advisors obtain … will be used exclusively for the purpose of proving our case against YouTube and Google [and] will be handled subject to a court protective order and in a highly confidential manner.”
Google senior litigation counsel Catherine Lacavera balked at the request for usernames and unique computer Internet addresses.
“We are disappointed the court granted Viacom’s overreaching demand for viewing history,” she told Reuters. “We will ask Viacom to respect users’
privacy and allow us to anonymize the logs before producing them under the court’s order.”
