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Feds sought data on everyone who watched certain YouTube videos

Occam's Banana

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Feds Sought Data on EVERYONE Who Watched A Certain Video Last Year
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8jMSs8du-o
{Steve Lehto | 26 March 2024}

We don't know if they turned it over or not, however.



Here is the article referenced in the video:

If you watched certain YouTube videos, investigators demanded your data from Google
Shared YouTube data prompts civil liberty worries.
https://mashable.com/article/google-ordered-to-hand-over-viewer-data-privacy-concerns
{Chase DiBenedetto | 23 March 2023}

If you've ever jokingly wondered if your search or viewing history is going to "put you on some kind of list," your concern may be more than warranted.

In now unsealed court documents reviewed by Forbes, Google was ordered to hand over the names, addresses, telephone numbers, and user activity of Youtube accounts and IP addresses that watched select YouTube videos, part of a larger criminal investigation by federal investigators.

The videos were sent by undercover police to a suspected cryptocurrency launderer under the username "elonmuskwhm." In conversations with the bitcoin trader, investigators sent links to public YouTube tutorials on mapping via drones and augmented reality software, Forbes details. The videos were watched more than 30,000 times, presumably by thousands of users unrelated to the case.

YouTube's parent company Google was ordered by federal investigators to quietly hand over all such viewer data for the period of Jan. 1 to Jan. 8, 2023, but Forbes couldn't confirm if Google had complied.

The mandated data retrieval is worrisome in itself, according to privacy experts. Federal investigators argued the request was legally justified as the data "would be relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation, including by providing identification information about the perpetrators," citing justification used by other police forces around the country. In a case out of New Hampshire, police requested similar data during the investigation of bomb threats that were being streamed live to YouTube — the order specifically requested viewership information at select time stamps during the live streams.

"With all law enforcement demands, we have a rigorous process designed to protect the privacy and constitutional rights of our users while supporting the important work of law enforcement," 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."

Privacy experts, however, are worried about the kind of precedent the court's order creates, citing concerns over the protections of the first and fourth amendments. "This is the latest chapter in a disturbing trend where we see government agencies increasingly transforming search warrants into digital dragnets," executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Albert Fox-Cahn told the publication. "It’s unconstitutional, it’s terrifying, and it’s happening every day."
 
Federal Authorities Requesting Identities of People Who Watched "Certain Youtube Videos"

https://www.naturalnews.com/2024-04-01-google-receives-request-identities-people-youtube-videos.html

Well, no longer just a crime to SPEAK.

It is now a CRIME to LISTEN to someone else who SPEAKS IN OPPOSITION.

All empowered by the fucking morons who do what their told, create YouTube accounts and let Google TRACK everything.

STOP FUCKING USING GOOGLE. If you continue to use Google, your fate is your own fault. I dont give a fuck what you use it for, you are committing suicide by doing so.
 
How can they tell who is watching what when you use a VPN?
 
I don't care anymore. I just assume the government is spying on everything I do online. I have no expectation of privacy anymore. I gave up on it, I have more important things to worry about.
 
In addition to the obvious, what's this about?

In conversations with the bitcoin trader, investigators sent links to public YouTube tutorials on mapping via drones and augmented reality software
 
In addition to the obvious, what's this about?

In conversations with the bitcoin trader, investigators sent links to public YouTube tutorials on mapping via drones and augmented reality software

And ^that's the scary part! I could get it if they were looking for lists of people who watched videos on how to make kamikaze drones or something. But this video search list sounds innocuous. Almost nerdy.
 
How can they tell who is watching what when you use a VPN?

Very simple. Cookies.

Most morons (not all) that use a VPN go straight to data collection services like Google and Fedbook and give their REAL FUCKING LOGINS.

At that point, they just castrated their VPN.
 
I don't care anymore. I just assume the government is spying on everything I do online. I have no expectation of privacy anymore. I gave up on it, I have more important things to worry about.

You dont hate Trump enough! Thus what you DIDNT DO is NOW A CRIME! Oh you also dont hate white people enough! Guilty of not being guilty of the crime of not being guilty! (yes, nothing makes sense)

In all seriousness, the NON CRIMES are the very thing that will get MOST PEOPLE KILLED.

Dont give up on Privacy any more than any Patriot should give up on the Constitution.
 
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