Google headquarters - Image Credits: PubKGroup / Shutterstock
According to a report by Forbes, Google has received court orders by the US federal investigators to provide information on all users who watched specific videos that were accessed by potential criminals.
One court order seeked to identify a suspected cryptocurrency trader and launderer dubbed “elonmuskwhm”, who allegedly accessed particular YouTube links of AR drone mapping software tutorials sent by undercover cops. The court order covered the names, IP addresses, phone numbers, location, and user activity of users who accessed the links between January 1 to 8, 2023, regardless if they had a Google account or not. The YouTube links had apparently been viewed at least 30,000 times, presumably mostly by innocent civilians whose personal information were unwittingly included in the court order.
Google also received another court order regarding an incident in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where the police was alerted to a bomb threat by an unidentified man claiming that an explosive was hidden in a public bin. During their search, the police discovered that they were under CCTV surveillance through a local business’s YouTube livestream, a modus operandi that is suspected to be part of a pattern of similar incidents nationwide. Federal investigators requested Google to provide information of all the users who viewed or interacted with eight specific YouTube livestreams during certain time periods. Mike McCormack, one of the people responsible for the livestreams, acknowledged that he was aware of the court order, noting that it pertained to “swatting incidents directed at the camera views at that time”.
It is unknown whether Google provided concrete data in compliance to both court orders, and the US Department of Justice declined to comment on the issue.
Reactions by privacy experts Link to heading
Privacy experts questioned the constitutionality of the court orders, arguing that they undermine rights guaranteed by the 1st and 4th Amendments related to free expression and protection against unjust searches. According to Albert Fox-Cahn, the executive director at the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project:
This is the latest chapter in a disturbing trend where we see government agencies increasingly transforming search warrants into digital dragnets. It’s unconstitutional, it’s terrifying and it’s happening every day. 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.
John Davisson, senior counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center, commented:
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.
Prevention Link to heading
With the potential risk posed by the precedent of these court orders, it is important for us to know how to prevent our personal information from getting targeted. Here are a few ways to do so:
Utilize various web privacy tools preserve our privacy and anonymity. You may learn more about the various web privacy tools by reading this article.
Use alternative front-ends for popular online services. Frontends such as Piped, ProxiTok, and other frontends, are privacy-focused and prevent large online platforms from collecting your data while using their services. For easy access to various alternative frontends, you may install the (LibRedirect browser extension](https://libredirect.github.io/).
Refrain from haphazardly entering sensitive information, by minimizing social media use.