Feds Ordered Google To Unmask Certain YouTube Users. Critics Say It’s ‘Terrifying.’
www.forbes.com
The federal government asked Google to turn over information on anyone who viewed multiple YouTube videos. Privacy experts say the orders are unconstitutional.

If the linked article has a paywall, you can access this archived version instead: https://archive.ph/zyhax

The court orders show the government telling Google to provide the names, addresses, telephone numbers and user activity for all Google account users who accessed the YouTube videos between January 1 and January 8, 2023. The government also wanted the IP addresses of non-Google account owners who viewed the videos.

“This is the latest chapter in a disturbing trend where we see government agencies increasingly transforming search warrants into digital dragnets. It’s unconstitutional, it’s terrifying and it’s happening every day,” said Albert Fox-Cahn, executive director at the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. “No one should fear a knock at the door from police simply because of what the YouTube algorithm serves up. I’m horrified that the courts are allowing this.” He said the orders were “just as chilling” as geofence warrants, where Google has been ordered to provide data on all users in the vicinity of a crime.

  • Gabu@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11726·
    8 个月前

    Why, would you look at that - apparently surveillance is fine and dandy, as long as it’s the US doing it. Fucking hypocrites.

      • DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafeEnglish
        527·
        8 个月前

        Someone with enough reading comprehension to take that tone would have understood it was criticism of the federal government’s hypocrisy and that critics complaining is not the same thing as a law or the courts agreeing.

        • pl_woahEnglish
          520·
          8 个月前

          You did not provide enough context in your original statement to distinguish between sarcasm and sincerity. Any sufficiently good old stupid statement is unrecognizable from parody.

  • mlg@lemmy.worldEnglish
    802·
    8 个月前

    Jokes on you I’m already on the DoD blacklist because I played War Thunder and got spammed with 40 year old “classified” NATOPs by the forums.

  • NigelFrobisher@aussie.zoneEnglish
    711·
    8 个月前

    “But sir, downloading viewings for ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ could blow up the entire Internet!”

    • shortwavesurfer@monero.townEnglish
      842·
      8 个月前

      I dont think newpipe would protect from this since it still contacts the yt servers to pull the video. Peertube or a VPN would stop this though.

      • balancedchaos@lemmy.worldEnglish
        335·
        8 个月前

        I just found out that Lemmy is not allowing (or has rate-limited, or whatever) VPN connections to post or react.

        Not a fan of that at all.

        Edit: it’s my instance being on Cloudflare, not Lemmy as a whole. My mistake.

      • einfach_orangensaft@feddit.deEnglish
        123·
        8 个月前

        VPNs protect your from geting caught torrenting, but it cant protect you from the US-goverment.

        First of all most of the advertized VPN’s are Honeypots and/or back/bugdoored by the NSA.

        And even if they where not…so much of the internet runs on servers/services/isp’s that are related to american companys that Timing attacks are possibe (for example your ISP logs and shared your encrypted traffic and the NSA then compares Timing patterns of requests with other services).

        • shortwavesurfer@monero.townEnglish
          14·
          8 个月前

          Right, but if Google is collecting your IP address to give to the government, then using a VPN would put another step in their path, and they would have to go to the VPN provider to try to figure out who it was.As long as that VPN provider is in another country like proton VPN and does not keep logs Then there’s a good chance that they won’t know who it was that requested the YouTube video

        • fishos@lemmy.worldEnglish
          36·
          8 个月前

          You have no clue how vpns work and shouldn’t be giving anyone advice on tech. You are full of shit. I’m not even gonna be polite about it because you are spouting nonsense with complete confidence.

  • Wes_DevEnglish
    32·
    8 个月前

    When companies tell you they respect your privacy and you should give them your data, you tell them it doesn’t matter. Because policies can change, and at the end of the day, your privacy isn’t always up to an single company.

    Wait. This was last year, so not the capitol riot. What happened in January last year? I’m in a decent mood today. Just going to skip looking deeper into this one. I have Factorio to play!

  • Grass@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    16·
    8 个月前

    The headline made me think of back when phone networks were just starting to be fast enough to watch YouTube on data, a guy at the job I was working was caught watching videos of young girls in supposedly lacking state of dress splashing in inflatable pools or something along those lines. Dunno what happened to him but everyone thought he was a nice guy the day before and then suddenly everyone was grossed out by his mere existing.

    My immediate concern though is do they account for people who were tricked into watching like with Rick rolling?

  • CrypticCoffee@lemm.eeEnglish
    15·
    8 个月前

    Are the problem with the people who watch the video, or the people who create, or host the videos?

    • maniclucky@lemmy.worldEnglish
      6·
      8 个月前

      A little bit of everyone? Watchers create demand for creators, which creates demand for hosts. If any link in this chain breaks, then the little ecosystem dies.

      Though that’s both difficult and reductive. Punishing hosts drives watchers to shadier hosts, with creators following. Punishing creators just creates space for other creators to fill the gap with unpredictable content (be it more of the same, better, worse, or other). Punishing watchers is resource intensive to do well, so the focus has to be on the really bad stuff to get anything done. And conjures articles like these when done poorly.

  • THCDenton@lemmy.worldEnglish
    13·
    8 个月前

    Good thing I have history turned off so I can watch “How to make an AK47 from scratch” in peace :D

    • jinwk00@lemm.eeEnglish
      61·
      8 个月前

      They still somehow track your history despite that turned off

      Notably with recommendations

  • mrmanager@lemmy.todayEnglish
    10·
    8 个月前

    Just another reason to not have a YouTube account. If you use Newpipe, you can subscribe to feeds anyway without any YouTube account.

    • devfuuu@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      8 个月前

      Until youtube pulls a twitter move where eventually everything will only be available under a login. Wait and see.

    • AtmaJnana@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      8 个月前

      Isnt NewPipe still making calls to YouTube from your IP? I think you’d need to also configure it to use an Invidious or Piped instance.

    • Pantherina@feddit.deEnglish
      1·
      8 个月前

      And a reason for platforms to implement zero trust models. I mean they need to hand out data to 3rd parties, they dont benefit from that?

      SimpleX for the Win.

  • SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.worldEnglish
    10·
    8 个月前

    For anyone wondering what the videos were:

    In a just-unsealed case from Kentucky reviewed by Forbes, undercover cops sought to identify the individual behind the online moniker “elonmuskwhm,” who they suspect of selling bitcoin for cash, potentially running afoul of money laundering laws and rules around unlicensed money transmitting.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
      95·
      8 个月前

      In the first line of the article

      Federal investigators have ordered Google to provide information on all viewers of select YouTube videos

      Federal, so yeah just the US for now.

      • barsoap@lemm.eeEnglish
        59·
        8 个月前

        The US isn’t the only federation in the world but it’s Forbes so yes of course it’s the US.

    • helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.worldEnglish
      233·
      8 个月前

      The videos are not very relevant to the topic of privacy and our freedom.

      Today it might be “extreme anarchy: how to make homemade bombs and guns”. On the surface, its a great idea, go stop those people.

      However, next year it could be something rediculous like “how to rip CDs”. Clearly you must be pirating, time to fine you $500 or put you through a more costly legal battle trying to prove grandpa’s 20 years of CDs were all obtained legally. Wow look at all the free money we just made because most will eat the $500 over hiring a lawyer. What else can we “fine” for?

      The idea that the government could use your internet history against you, with no other factors, is as absurd as wire tapping someone and waiting for them to say something they don’t like.