Posts Tagged ‘privacy’
Google’s Pirates vs Viacom’s Snoops
July 4th, 2008
No, i’m not talking about a sponsorship-crazed football match; I’m referring to the Google v Viacom lawsuit in the U.S., which, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, has stirred up a whole load of privacy and data issues for us all to argue about over the coming weeks and months.
However, for me, the issue is why request this data in the first place? What is Viacom trying to prove? According to the ruling, Viacom apparently needs access to the personal data of more than 100 million people to build a case against Google’s (YouTube) alleged piracy of various Viacom content, originating from the likes of MTV and Nickelodeon.
No matter how outrageous getting access to all that personal data to fight a court case is, do we really think Viacom has done this to conduct a detailed examination of the viewing habits of millions of people around the world, as some have suggested? Personally I doubt Viacom would be that obvious, but in the cold light of day, i’m struggling with the alternatives.
What can they do? Review all that data, win the case and disrupt the movement of content on the web just because they are fighting a losing battle against content sharing in the long term? Or, somehow use that data to gain advantage.
Seems very odd, especially when the data required to prove YouTube’s piracy, or not, is most likely available via other means.
Maybe Viacom is taking some sort of reverse privacy stand and showing us all how much data large web-based content providers hold on us all, and in fact succeeding where the U.S. Government failed in getting Google to hand over its data.
Maybe it’s just getting one over on Google.
Either way, Google is fighting to be allowed to clean the data of personal information. So we shall see.
Bobbie Johnson offers a good write-up of the story in the Guardian.
June 6th, 2008
It seems that the open online generation is beginning to have second thoughts about the content that it shares with the world via the web.
According to a press complaints commission survey into the media’s use of personal material sourced from social networks, and the web in general, sharing has quickly turned into protecting.
The survey revealed:
- Almost 80% of social networking site users would be more careful about the details they put online if they knew the media might use it.
- 89% wanted guidelines introduced on what the media could use.
- 49% of respondents said it was wrong for the media to use information that they had posted online without asking consent of the person concerned.
- 58% were fairly or very concerned about the lack of control about how they were depicted on websites.
We have already seen the result of employers searching for a prospect’s background on the web and turning up various images and text that the average candidate wouldn’t want their prospective employer to see, and now it’s spread to the media.
To be honest, i have little sympathy for people that freely share content one day but then want the brakes applied when it comes to using that information in the media. I do have some sympathy for people that didn’t know that they were being filmed, or if the content is pure fiction, and in those cases yes, regulation would be advisable, but wholly unenforceable.
However, for those that feel the need to share their most intimate/private moments and content on the web, even in so called ’safe environments’ such as friend-invited Facebook, the old rules still apply. If it’s on the web, it’s in the public domain and you’ve waved your rights.
I even find myself agreeing with the chairman of the PPC, Sir Christopher Meyer, who said: “In the digital age, self-regulation, with its sound principles and speed of operation, has never been more relevant.”
I must be getting old, as this just seems like common sense…
The BBC has the full story.
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