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Big Brother (Viacom) Wants To Know What You're Watching On YouTube

By Robert Paul Reyes

When we are in a public place or a business establishment there is no expectation of privacy, everyone is well aware that there are cameras covering our every move.

But when I'm home relaxing on the Internet, I would like to believe that it's nobody's business what sites I frequent. But I guess I'm being naive, telecommunications companies have the green light from Uncle Sam to spy on us, and now a judge has ordered YouTube (owned by Google) to give up detailed information of users' online behavior:

"On Tuesday, a judge in the Viacom vs. Google/YouTube copyright case ordered Google to give up detailed logs of users' search behavior.

As Wired's Threat Level puts it: 'Google will have to turn over every record of every video watched by YouTube users, including users' names and IP addresses.'

Viacom's hope is to show that users watch so many infringing videos that YouTube can be seen as nothing more than a hive of copyright violations and piracy. One question, however, is why Viacom needs access to the identities of YouTube users, many of whom are young people and even children. When they know peoples' private viewing habits, what will they do with the information?"

Why does Viacom need the identities of users to make their case that copyright infringements are taking place on YouTube? They can simply point to the millions of times that copyrighted content has been viewed on YouTube."

Quotation from the LA Times

I tell my friends and family that I only watch political videos on YouTube as research for my articles. I would be devastated if it came out that I actually view farting babies, cats doing cute stuff, hot girls acting silly, music videos, and stupid people tricks.

The next time you ogle a video on YouTube of a hot girl dancing in super-short shorts, and you think nobody knows about your kinky side - think again.

I'm a human being and not just a set of viewing habits that conglomerations can share with other. I demand that my government protect my privacy, but I may be asking too much because the Bush administration has trampled on our privacy in the name of fighting terrorism.

Thank goodness that George Bush will soon be replaced by Barack Obama, a statesman who respects our Constitutional rights to privacy.

Robert Paul Reyes is a NewsBlaze writer on Politics, Pop Culture and Pointless Pontificating. Contact him by writing to NewsBlaze.