YouTube’s court-ordered 12-terabyte data dump will scratch out
information identifying users, providing Viacom with nothing more and
nothing less than the data it seeks on video viewing statistics in its ongoing
lawsuit against the user-content video portal.
“We are pleased to report that Viacom, MTV and other litigants have backed
off their original demand for all users' viewing histories and we will not be
providing that information,” reads an update on YouTube’s official blog. “In
addition, Viacom and the plaintiffs had originally demanded access to users'
private videos, our search technology, and our video identification technology.
Our lawyers strongly opposed each of those demands and the court sided with
us.”
According to court
records (PDF), YouTube parent Google will replace a number of different
fields in its July 2 court-ordered log dump with “substitute values” that
preserve their uniqueness while obfuscating users’ actual identities. The court
order specifically names “User ID, IP Address, and Visitor ID” and the masking
technique will be settled upon within a week.
Among other things, the court order also recognizes an agreement between
both parties to dispense with any arguments that masked log data can still
identify a single user. This provision was inserted, it seems, to avoid
complications similar to the AOL
search log scandal of 2006, where a number of investigators were able to
identify AOL users based solely on their search requests despite having
identifying data masked out.
Viacom launched
its lawsuit against YouTube in 2007, where it accuses the site of not doing
enough to police its content for unauthorized, copyrighted video files.
When the U.S. District Court in New York ordered
YouTube to turn over complete site usage logs last month, internet users
and YouTube fans reacted
with outrage – a move that Viacom lawyer Louis Solomon attributed to
Google’s press-savvy instincts.
“How else do you explain why they have been collecting and using IP
addresses to monetize their site (for a while now), yet only now, with great
self righteousness, claim to be concerned about producing IP addresses?” said
Solomon.
Viacom previously claimed it is not interested in users’ personal
information. The EFF also noted that information identifying third parties in a
lawsuit can only be disclosed if it is ”absolutely
necessary,” and that there are a number of steps to be taken – none of which
Viacom has done – before that information can be put to use.