XPost: alt.law-enforcement, or.politics, seattle.politics
XPost: ca.politics, sci.military.naval

from https://mashable.com/article/google-ordered-to-hand-over-viewer-data-privacy-concerns

If you watched certain YouTube videos, investigators demanded your data
from Google
Shared YouTube data prompts civil liberty worries.
By Chase DiBenedetto on March 23, 2024

A phone showing the YouTube logo stands propped in front of a glowing
red laptop.
Privacy experts worry about growing use of digital dragnets. Credit: Lam
Yik / Bloomberg via Getty Images
If you've ever jokingly wondered if your search or viewing history is
going to "put you on some kind of list," your concern may be more than warranted.

In now unsealed court documents reviewed by Forbes, Google was ordered
to hand over the names, addresses, telephone numbers, and user activity
of Youtube accounts and IP addresses that watched select YouTube videos,
part of a larger criminal investigation by federal investigators.

The videos were sent by undercover police to a suspected cryptocurrency launderer under the username "elonmuskwhm." In conversations with the
bitcoin trader, investigators sent links to public YouTube tutorials on
mapping via drones and augmented reality software, Forbes details. The
videos were watched more than 30,000 times, presumably by thousands of
users unrelated to the case.

YouTube's parent company Google was ordered by federal investigators to
quietly hand over all such viewer data for the period of Jan. 1 to Jan.
8, 2023, but Forbes couldn't confirm if Google had complied.

SEE ALSO: Users get a taste of Google's AI search results, unprompted
The mandated data retrieval is worrisome in itself, according to privacy experts. Federal investigators argued the request was legally justified
as the data "would be relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation, including by providing identification information about
the perpetrators," citing justification used by other police forces
around the country. In a case out of New Hampshire, police requested
similar data during the investigation of bomb threats that were being
streamed live to YouTube — the order specifically requested viewership information at select time stamps during the live streams.

"With all law enforcement demands, we have a rigorous process designed
to protect the privacy and constitutional rights of our users while
supporting the important work of law enforcement," Google spokesperson
Matt Bryant told Forbes. "We examine each demand for legal validity,
consistent with developing case law, and we routinely push back against
over broad or otherwise inappropriate demands for user data, including objecting to some demands entirely."

Privacy experts, however, are worried about the kind of precedent the
court's order creates, citing concerns over the protections of the first
and fourth amendments. "This is the latest chapter in a disturbing trend
where we see government agencies increasingly transforming search
warrants into digital dragnets," executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Albert Fox-Cahn told the publication. "It’s unconstitutional, it’s terrifying, and it’s happening every day."

Related Stories
YouTube now requires labels for some — but not all — AI-generated videos Apple and Google are reportedly talking. Could Gemini come to iPhone?
Google will now permanently ban advertisers who fake endorsements
How to see all the weird apps that can access your data on Facebook
Here's how to download your personal data from Apple
Advocates have called on Google to be more transparent about its
data-sharing policies for years, with fears stoked by ongoing open
arrests of protestors and the creeping state-wide criminalization of
abortion.

In December, Google updated its privacy policies to allow users to save
their location data directly to their devices rather than the cloud, and shortened the retention time for such storage — the new policies also indirectly stunted the long-used investigatory workaround in which law enforcement officials use Google location data to target suspects.

Google has been taken to court over such concerns over the past year,
including two state supreme court cases surrounding the
constitutionality of keyword search warrants, which force sites to turn
over an individual's internet search data.

Topics Google Privacy YouTube

Chase sits in front of a green framed window, wearing a cheetah print
shirt and looking to her right. On the window's glass pane reads
"Ricas's Tostadas" in red lettering.
Chase DiBenedetto
Social Good Reporter

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)