Big Brother Takes another Stride Forwards
by Jeff Davis
It isn’t just what books we’re checking out of the library or what kind of soup we buy at the Safeway that’s being recorded forever into a hundred different databases. Our preference for certain youtube videos is soon to be recorded.
A New York Times article reports “A federal judge in New York has ordered Google to turn over to Viacom a database linking users of YouTube, the Web’s largest video site by far, with every clip they have watched there. The order raised concerns among users and privacy advocates that the online video viewing habits of tens of millions of people could be exposed. But Google and Viacom said they were hoping to come up with a way to protect the anonymity of YouTube viewers.”
How can Google turn over a list of names while “protecting their privacy?” That’s oxymoronic babble. It can’t be done. It’s like being a little bit pregnant. (more…)