Google and Viacom Agrees to Preserve Anonymity
As you probably know, a court ruled that Google would have to turn over user data from YouTube to Viacom, as part of the list of viewed videos that Viacom claims (probably justly so) are illegally available on YouTube. This made some people sweat, but more importantly, it pointed out that not even the all-mighty Google can keep your stuff secret for you, unless they delete it of course.
However, good news just in! TechCrunch reports that Viacom agrees to Googles request to anonymize the user IDs and IP addresses, although it will be able to track them down. Michael Arrington sums it up nicely:
The new order, filed this evening, states that Google will substitue user id’s and IP addresses for anonymous but unique identifiers.
For more on this, read the full order over at TechCrunch.
Thord Daniel Hedengren is a designer, writer, and blogger, and also the former editor of The Blog Herald. He used to be a hotshot in the gaming industry in Sweden, but sold everything and went International. Most recently he wrote a book called Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog, and does loads of kickass design.