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Google was ordered to identify people who watched certain YouTube videos. Privacy experts say the orders are unconstitutional. (www.forbes.com)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by ForgottenFlux@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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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.

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[–] mrmanager@lemmy.today 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] Pantherina@feddit.de 0 points 7 months ago

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.

[–] PoliticallyIncorrect@lemm.ee 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The kind of things why I use NewPipe..

[–] shortwavesurfer@monero.town 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] einfach_orangensaft@feddit.de 0 points 7 months ago (2 children)

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.town 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] einfach_orangensaft@feddit.de 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I mean what makes u think that proton isnt just another NSA operation.

[–] fishos@lemmy.world -1 points 7 months ago

What if unicorns are real but invisible and we can't touch them?

I can make up outlandish "facts" too.

[–] fishos@lemmy.world -1 points 7 months ago

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.

[–] Pantherina@feddit.de 0 points 7 months ago

What videos where meant?