Viacom and YouTube Compromise: Privacy Still at Risk

Google agreed last night to hand over YouTube user data to Viacom and other plaintiffs in a copyright infringement case. To quell privacy advocates concerned data would compromise the identities of YouTube users Google and Viacom agreed before the data traded hands Google would "anonymize YouTube user data," according to a Google spokesperson Ricardo Reyes.

Remember "User 4417749"?: Never Forget "4417749"

The new agreement may make Google feel better about handing over its user data, but it shouldn't make you feel better if you care about your privacy. Remember the AOL user data fiasco two years ago, when the online portal mistakenly released the search histories and thus the identity of 650,000 people? Granted, YouTube user IDs and video watching habits are unlikely to put someone at risk for identity theft, but any time to corporations start to share user information, the consumers are the ones that stand to lose.

In the AOL case where 20 million search keywords for over 650,000 users over a 3-month period, that were intended for research purposes, was leaked to the Web, it didn't take long before sleuths turned "numeric IDs" into real names. One was user 4417749 (AKA Thelma Arnold). Arnolds is the then 62-year-old woman who The New York Times correctly identified by examining her history of keyword searches.

Viacom will be getting a great deal more than just 3-months of data regarding 650,000 "anonymous" users.

Electronic Frontier Foundation argues that the release of this data "threatens to expose deeply private information." I agree.

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