Viacom Promises to Respect Privacy of YouTube Users

6:15 am on July 10, 2008 | Category: Business, Law, Web Services

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Viacom is attempting to calm the concerns of privacy advocates upset by a recent court order that Google Inc. must provide the American media conglomerate with the usernames and IP addresses of YouTube video users.

“The Court’s recent decision has triggered concern about what information will be disclosed and how it will be used,” Viacom said in a statement, assuring YouTube users that it “has not asked for and will not be obtaining any personally identifiable information of any user. Any information that we or our outside advisors obtain — which will not include personally identifiable information — will be used exclusively for the purpose of proving our case against You Tube and Google, will be handled subject to a court protective order and in a highly confidential manner.”

Viacom said that it is working with Google to come up with ways to distinguish individual users from one another without identifying them by username, IP address, or any other personal information. Furthermore, the company is dismissing speculation that it might try to sue individual users for their use of copyrighted videos.

“The information that is produced by Google is going to be limited to outside advisers who can use it solely for the purpose of enforcing our rights against YouTube and Google,” assured Viacom’s general counsel, Michael Fricklas. “I can unequivocally state that we will not use any of this information to enforce rights against end users.”

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit organization advocating internet free speech and privacy rights, commented that “it is encouraging to see that both Viacom and Google are responding to the important privacy interest raised by the court’s order,” and promised to “continue discussions with the parties on ways to protect the privacy of the YouTube users.”

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    1. hi my name is bob i like using this site because it is easy to navagate and easy to use

      Comment by BOB — July 11, 2008 #

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