July 2, 2008

Privacy Rights | Court rules that YouTube users viewing habits are not private.

Privacy Doesn't Exist Anymore - The Expert On Everything - A Novel by Edward David Gil

Described as “Catch-22” meets “Three Days of the Condor,” this techno-thriller with an attitude focuses on realistic technological details and takes the reader on a journey into an uncomfortable future that could easily become a reality.

OVERVIEW

Young Charlie Sanders is offered a six-figure job after only thirty seconds into an interview at Vector Systems, is mistakenly handed the company’s only prototype of a technology that can definitively erase any and all privacy in our society (code-named “Wallace”, It fits like a snug hearing aid and can maintain a conversation), is pursued like prey by more than a few interested parties – including a Governor with presidential ambitions and quite a few U.S. Senators – and begins receiving death-threats from the technology itself, which now has its own ideas.

Privacy Issues In The News

Privacy Rights are being compromised yet again. The case of Viacom vs Google has been decided and Google has been ordered to turn over 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. This means that Viacom will be able to identify the viewing habits of YouTube users.

Once again, this seems to go to far and has total disregard for the privacy rights of YouTube participants. Apparently there was disregard for the Video Privacy Protection Act which was passed to protect a person's movie rental habits from being rendered public information.

Privacy Rights are being quickly eroded to the point that it is hard to know if we have any privacy rights.

More Resources

Court Ruling Will Expose Viewing Habits of YouTube Users - Putting aside whether a Google Public Policy blog's statement on an unrelated topic can waive the privacy rights of YouTube users, the statement means that at least some YouTube users are identifiable, and must be protected by the VPPA. …

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Filed under Privacy, Privacy Rights, Rights to Privacy by Richard Mathiason

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