Viacom vs Google: YouTube privacy fears Reuters via Silicon.com (July 4)
Viacom won a ruling from a US judge to have Google turn over data on user viewing of YouTube videos. This is part of its $1 billion lawsuit against Google for infringement of copyright.
"Judge Louis Stanton of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York ordered Google on Tuesday to turn over as evidence a database with usernames of YouTube viewers, what videos they watched when, and users' computer addresses."
Maybe Google will be able and allowed to anonymize the logs.
Also - Judge orders YouTube to reveal info by Mathew Ingram, Globe and Mail (July 3)
This hinges on definition of personal data. Video viewing records would have IP number. Although there is some protection of information about what videos an individual rents, it wasn't seen to apply to online viewing. Mathew Ingram points out that Google has maintained in other cases that IP address is not personal data - and we see now that it is.
U.S. decision won't apply to Canadian viewers.