by: Tom Corelis
Google dodges a bullet with its faithful users
YouTube’s court-ordered 12-terabyte data dump will scratch out information identifying users, providing Viacom with nothing more and nothing less than the data it seeks on video viewing statistics in its ongoing lawsuit against the user-content video portal.
“We are pleased to report that Viacom, MTV and other litigants have backed off their original demand for all users' viewing histories and we will not be providing that information,” reads an update on YouTube’s official blog. “In addition, Viacom and the plaintiffs had originally demanded access to users' private videos, our search technology, and our video identification technology. Our lawyers strongly opposed each of those demands and the court sided with us.”
According to court records , YouTube parent Google will replace a number of different fields in its July 2 court-ordered log dump with “substitute values” that preserve their uniqueness while obfuscating users’ actual identities. The court order specifically names “User ID, IP Address, and Visitor ID” and the masking technique will be settled upon within a week.
Among other things, the court order also recognizes an agreement between both parties to dispense with any arguments that masked log data can still identify a single user. This provision was inserted, it seems, to avoid complications similar to the AOL search log scandal of 2006, where a number of investigators were able to identify AOL users based solely on their search requests despite having identifying data masked out.
Viacom launched its lawsuit against YouTube in 2007, where it accuses the site of not doing enough to police its content for unauthorized, copyrighted video files.
When the U.S. District Court in New York ordered YouTube to turn over complete site usage logs last month, internet users and YouTube fans reacted with outrage – a move that Viacom lawyer Louis Solomon attributed to Google’s press-savvy instincts.
“How else do you explain why they have been collecting and using IP addresses to monetize their site (for a while now), yet only now, with great self righteousness, claim to be concerned about producing IP addresses?” said Solomon.
Viacom previously claimed it is not interested in users’ personal information. The EFF also noted that information identifying third parties in a lawsuit can only be disclosed if it is ”absolutely necessary,” and that there are a number of steps to be taken – none of which Viacom has done – before that information can be put to use.
