Court order on YouTube user data fans privacy fears

NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. judge's order toGoogle Inc to turn over YouTube user data to Viacom Inc sparkedan outcry on Thursday from privacy advocates in the midst of alegal showdown over video piracy.

Viacom, owner of movie studio Paramount and MTV Networks,requested the information as part of its $1 billion copyrightinfringement lawsuit against the popular online video serviceand its deep-pocketed parent, Google.

Judge Louis Stanton of the U.S. District Court for theSouthern District of New York ordered Google on Tuesday to turnover as evidence a database with usernames of YouTube viewers,what videos they watched when, and users' computer addresses.

Privacy activists from the Electronic Frontier Foundationsaid in a blog post the order "threatens to expose deeplyprivate information" and violated the Video Privacy ProtectionAct, a 1988 federal law passed after Supreme Court nomineeRobert Bork's video rental habits were revealed.

Representatives of both companies said they were looking towork out how to comply with the court order to share video datawhile ensuring personally identifiable information is secure.

Viacom responded in a statement that it needs the data todemonstrate video piracy patterns that are the heart of itscase against YouTube. But it sought to diffuse privacy fears,saying it had no interest in identifying individual users.

"Viacom has not asked for and will not be obtaining anypersonally identifiable information of any user," Viacom said.

"Any information that we or our outside advisors obtain ...will be used exclusively for the purpose of proving our caseagainst YouTube and Google (and) will be handled subject to acourt protective order and in a highly confidential manner."

Google senior litigation counsel Catherine Lacavera saidher company was looking to resolve the issue quickly in a waythat balanced Viacom and other plaintiffs' need for evidence inthe case while "carving out some space for user privacy."

Lacavera said her company was pleased the court's decisionhad put limits on evidence discovery, including refusing toallow Viacom access to YouTube's search technology or to users'private videos on the site.

But the Google attorney called on Viacom to allow YouTubeto anonymize user data -- in other words, redact rows of datacontaining usernames or unique computer Internet addresses.

In closed-door hearings ahead of the ruling, Googleattorneys had argued against turning over such data withouteliminating personally identifiable information.

"We are disappointed the court granted Viacom'soverreaching demand for viewing history," she said. "We willask Viacom to respect users' privacy and allow us to anonymizethe logs before producing them under the court's order."

(Editing by Braden Reddall)