More privacy-related issues
Sept 30, 2008 5:50:13 GMT
Post by CharlieChomper on Sept 30, 2008 5:50:13 GMT
In weeding through articles and trying to group them as best I can, I decided to start by posting some articles involving some rather atrocious privacy-related concerns and violations--ones which users had no reason to even be aware of as ever having happened.
That said, the first article actually involves the German company, Deutsche Telekom. They admitted (upon having been caught in the act) to having secretly tracked and spied upon phone conversations between members of their board and journalists. The company, since being caught, has tried to make it clear that it was not listening in to conversations involving their customers and has been under investigation over this.
The reaction from the tech/techie community about the matter was more an attitude of adding another name to a growing list of companies who have engaged in similar antics in the past or continue to engage in such acts--but at the same time, not entirely shocked by what happened anymore than there really was any surprise about it for the same reason.
The next article I actually had waited so long to post, that there has since been a couple of follow-up notes about it. Basically, it involves Youtube and a US judge putting into motion a court order for Google (who owns Youtube) to hand over all user data and viewing history over to Viacom in an ongoing battle over Viacom's claims that Youtube is infringing upon its copyrights (it also goes back to the epic RIAA and now the rest of the entertainment industry's battle over sharing and posting of music and other media formats--however, as that delves into a highly controversial subject, I won't get into that, obviously).
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) began protesting this decision from the moment it was announced and cited the Video Privacy Protection act as well as the decision being in violation of it.
Google likewise was not terribly thrilled with it as it, as in addition to 4TB (1 terrabyte=1024GB) worth of hard drive data involving user information, IP addresses, and viewing histories, they were also required to turn over all videos (including those which had been deleted and log files indicating how often each video had been viewed and by which users (repeat viewers being of particular interest)--with respect to deleted videos, they were also required to turn over whether or not they or similar videos had been re-uploaded at some point and by which users, etc.), copies of any videos which were marked "private" (even those not featuring any content of a copyrighted nature, such as home videos that people just didn't wish for the rest of the world to see as they regarded them as private), and vital information involving Google's advertising methods and schemes.
However, what this article leaves out is that following this order (as in the very next day), the order was broadened and even extended to include information involving Google's own employees--which only further angered and upset Google, especially upon learning that Viacom was also using the information provided not just to supposedly "catch" people who may have uploaded content they regarded as copyrighted to them, but also to see if they could catch any of Google's own employees somehow in the act and use it against them.
At that point, Google finally took more of an aggressive action and not only denied the request but fought back against it and had the order overturned. The EFF, likewise threatened legal action over the matter. However, as to how much data had already been released to Viacom when it was just user information still remains in question. The lawsuit, it should be noted, is also still an ongoing/pending matter.
That said, the first article actually involves the German company, Deutsche Telekom. They admitted (upon having been caught in the act) to having secretly tracked and spied upon phone conversations between members of their board and journalists. The company, since being caught, has tried to make it clear that it was not listening in to conversations involving their customers and has been under investigation over this.
The reaction from the tech/techie community about the matter was more an attitude of adding another name to a growing list of companies who have engaged in similar antics in the past or continue to engage in such acts--but at the same time, not entirely shocked by what happened anymore than there really was any surprise about it for the same reason.
The next article I actually had waited so long to post, that there has since been a couple of follow-up notes about it. Basically, it involves Youtube and a US judge putting into motion a court order for Google (who owns Youtube) to hand over all user data and viewing history over to Viacom in an ongoing battle over Viacom's claims that Youtube is infringing upon its copyrights (it also goes back to the epic RIAA and now the rest of the entertainment industry's battle over sharing and posting of music and other media formats--however, as that delves into a highly controversial subject, I won't get into that, obviously).
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) began protesting this decision from the moment it was announced and cited the Video Privacy Protection act as well as the decision being in violation of it.
Google likewise was not terribly thrilled with it as it, as in addition to 4TB (1 terrabyte=1024GB) worth of hard drive data involving user information, IP addresses, and viewing histories, they were also required to turn over all videos (including those which had been deleted and log files indicating how often each video had been viewed and by which users (repeat viewers being of particular interest)--with respect to deleted videos, they were also required to turn over whether or not they or similar videos had been re-uploaded at some point and by which users, etc.), copies of any videos which were marked "private" (even those not featuring any content of a copyrighted nature, such as home videos that people just didn't wish for the rest of the world to see as they regarded them as private), and vital information involving Google's advertising methods and schemes.
However, what this article leaves out is that following this order (as in the very next day), the order was broadened and even extended to include information involving Google's own employees--which only further angered and upset Google, especially upon learning that Viacom was also using the information provided not just to supposedly "catch" people who may have uploaded content they regarded as copyrighted to them, but also to see if they could catch any of Google's own employees somehow in the act and use it against them.
At that point, Google finally took more of an aggressive action and not only denied the request but fought back against it and had the order overturned. The EFF, likewise threatened legal action over the matter. However, as to how much data had already been released to Viacom when it was just user information still remains in question. The lawsuit, it should be noted, is also still an ongoing/pending matter.
