Thursday, July 03, 2008

Get a Proxy.

Well, it's been made abundantly clear what time it is.

Google must divulge the viewing habits of every user who has ever watched any video on YouTube, a US court has ruled.

The ruling comes as part of Google's legal battle with Viacom over allegations of copyright infringement.

Digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) called the ruling a "set-back to privacy rights".

The viewing log, which will be handed to Viacom, contains the log-in ID of users, the computer IP address (online identifier) and video clip details.

While the legal battle between the two firms is being contested in the US, it is thought the ruling will apply to YouTube users and their viewing habits everywhere.

That's bad. This is worse.

The US court declined Viacom's request that Google be forced to hand over the source code of YouTube, saying it was a "trade secret" that should not be disclosed.

But it said privacy concerns expressed by Google about handing over the log were "speculative".

This is simply one U.S. court, not the Supreme Court. But this is the Roberts court; it's likely to stand up. The implication here is perfectly clear: Corporate privacy is valuable and important, whereas individual privacy is "speculative."

Letme repeat that, in case it didn't sink in. Any privacy concerns about Viacom getting full and unrestricted access to everything anybody has ever viewed on YouTube is "speculative."

You have no rights.

Get a proxy.

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