(CMR) US Federal investigators have ordered Google to provide information on all viewers of select YouTube videos, according to multiple court orders obtained by Forbes.
The authorities asked for the IP addresses of users who weren’t logged in when they watched those videos between January 1 and 8, 2023.
Privacy experts from multiple civil rights groups told Forbes these orders are unconstitutional because they threaten to turn innocent YouTube viewers into criminal suspects.
According to Malwarebytes Labs, the starting point of one of the investigations is an entity that uses the handle “elonmuskwhm” and is suspected of money laundering by selling Bitcoin for cash. As part of the investigation, agents sent the suspect links to tutorials on YouTube about mapping via drones and augmented reality software. Then, they asked YouTube to send them data about the people who watched that video.
But those video tutorials were not private. By the time the agents asked YouTube’s parent company, Google, for information about the viewers, they had been watched over 30,000 times.
In another case related to a bomb threat, the authorities asked for information about the viewers of eight selected live streams. One of those live streams has over 130,000 subscribers.
Malwarebytes further reported that the police received a threat from an unknown male that an explosive had been placed in a trash can in a public area. When the police went to investigate the matter, they found out their actions were broadcast through a YouTube live-stream camera.
Similar events had taken place before prompting law enforcement to go after those responsible.
However, Malwarebytes explained that asking for data of that many viewers, many of whom may be innocent bystanders, goes against what privacy experts believe to be reasonable.
Albert Fox-Cahn, executive director at the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (STOP) said:
“No one should fear a knock at the door from police simply because of what the YouTube algorithm serves up. I’m horrified that the courts are allowing this.”
According to the documents Forbes has seen, the court granted the order but asked Google not to make it public. It is not known if Google complied with the request.
Google spokesperson Matt Bryant told Forbes, “We examine each demand for legal validity, consistent with developing case law, and we routinely push back against over broad or otherwise inappropriate demands for user data, including objecting to some demands entirely.”
John Davisson, senior counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, told Forbes, “What we watch online can reveal deeply sensitive information about us—our politics, our passions, our religious beliefs, and much more. It’s fair to expect that law enforcement won’t have access to that information without probable cause. This order turns that assumption on its head.”
According to Malwarebytes, YouTube warrants are similar to geofence warrants, where a court issues a search warrant to allow law enforcement to search a database for all active mobile devices within a particular area.
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