Viacom allows Google to conceal YouTube usernames in court case
Legal combatants agree on deal to replace user IDs in video logging database with other values
IDG News Service - Google Inc. will be able to conceal the identities of YouTube users when it hands over a database of their viewing habits to Viacom International Inc. in response to a court order, the companies agreed Monday.
Although Google must still provide Viacom with the database logging which videos were viewed on the YouTube site and when, it can modify the user ID, visitor ID and IP address fields showing who watched the videos and from where. Google will replace the data in those fields with unique values preserving the relationship between them but protecting the anonymity of YouTube users, according to legal papers filed jointly by the two companies in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (download PDF).
Viacom filed suit against Google and its YouTube LLC video-sharing subsidiary early last year, accusing them of illegally distributing its copyrighted content. As part of the discovery phase of the case, Viacom asked for access to the video-viewing information stored in YouTube's logging database, claiming that the data could help it show that copyrighted content is of more interest to YouTube's users than videos created by other users are.
Earlier this month, the judge overseeing the lawsuit ruled in favor of Viacom and ordered Google to give the media and entertainment company a copy of the database.
Some privacy advocates were appalled by the ruling; for example, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco warned in a blog post that the ruling "threatens to expose deeply private information about what videos are watched by YouTube users." However, other privacy advocates raised the question of why Google is collecting and retaining the video-viewing data in the first place.
Monday's agreement likely will help allay the fears about possible disclosures of personal information, although much will depend on the process that Google uses to choose the values that it will use to replace the user IDs and other information in the database.
When researchers at AOL LLC published logs of the online searches conducted by about 658,000 of its users in 2006, some of those users were quickly identified despite the fact that their usernames were replaced with unique, anonymous codes. AOL promised to beef up its data privacy policies after that incident, which resulted in the resignation of the company's chief technology officer and the firing of two researchers as well as the filing of a lawsuit against AOL.
As part of the agreement between Google and Viacom, the latter company said it will "not engage in any efforts to circumvent the encryption" used to conceal the IP addresses and YouTube user IDs in the logging database.



- Excel 2010 Cheat Sheet
- Register for this Computerworld Insider Cheat Sheet and gain access to hundreds of premium content articles, guides, product reviews and more.
- Digital Transformation: Creating New Business Models Where Digital Meets Physical
- Individuals and businesses alike are embracing the digital revolution. Social networks and digital devices are being used to engage government, businesses and civil...
- Make the Connection: Better Network Connectivity Drives Transformation
- Network connectivity is more than just plumbing. Leading organizations today see high-performance network connectivity as a critical enabler of competitive advantage, and not...
- Virtualizing Government Infrastructure
- All server virtualization solutions are not created equal. The more-with-less agenda for government agencies is tailor-made for server virtualization, which is evolving into...
- Moving Service Management to SaaS
- Today, organizations can enjoy similarly substantial benefi ts by migrating their IT service management functions to a software-as-a-service model. This paper shows how...
- Achieving 360 Degree Network Visibility with Nimsoft
- 360° network visibility is critical for ensuring continuous availability of networks, servers, and applications-anything less could
have costly bottom-line implications.
All Networking White Papers
- Optimizing Networks for the Cloud
- Join guest speaker, Rohit Mehra, IDC Director of Enterprise Communications Infrastructure, to explore current trends, discuss best practices for optimizing Data Center and...
- Unified Communications 101
- What's the best way to implement a unified communications solution for your organization?
- Try the OptiView® XG on your network - FREE
- The OptiView® XG is the first dedicated tablet with automated network and application analysis -- fastest way to root cause. XG raises the...
- Apps QuickStart Series Part 2: Designing and Deploying SQL Server on VMware vSphere
- Download this webcast to learn about the design considerations for virtualizing SQL workloads, performance and scalability information and high-availability options, as well as...
- Apps QuickStart Series Part 1: Designing and Deploying Exchange 2010 on VMware vSphere
- Download this webcast to learn the virtual hardware design considerations for Exchange 2010, deployment using the building block approach, options for high-availability and... All Networking Webcasts