Be Careful What You Watch

Disappointing decision (this seems to be pretty clear re: privacy rights given previous rulings) - if this decision stands, organizations that leverage YouTube (or similar services) as part of their own social media efforts might want to consider the derivative implications that this ruling might have on their customers since their viewing habits might no longer be private:

Viewing Habits of YouTube Users | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Yesterday, in the Viacom v. Google litigation, the federal court for the Southern District of New York ordered Google to produce to Viacom (over Google's objections):

all data from the Logging database concerning each time a YouTube video has been viewed on the YouTube website or through embedding on a third-party website

The court’s order grants Viacom's request and erroneously ignores the protections of the federal Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), and threatens to expose deeply private information about what videos are watched by YouTube users. The VPPA passed after a newspaper disclosed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork's video rental records. As Congress recognized, your selection of videos to watch is deeply personal and deserves the strongest protection.

Court Ruling Will Expose Viewing Habits of YouTube Users | Electronic Frontier Foundation

Comments

[Barret Wolf]

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