Google forced to release data gathered on Youtube

YouTube ordered to hand over viewing data
In a ruling that could have serious privacy implications, a federal judge has ruled that popular internet video site YouTube must hand over details about what people are watching online. The decision, filed July 2 by U.S. District Judge Louis L. Stanton in New York, is part of a $1-billion copyright-infringement lawsuit that Viacom filed last year against Google, which owns YouTube. In response, Google has added a privacy link to its home page. See a comment on the ruling by Electronic Frontier Foundation Attorney Kurt Opsahl. But Jaikumar Vijayan asks, what is Google doing collecting and retaining all that data in the first place?...
San Francisco Chronicle, July 4; Los Angeles Times, July 4; Deeplinks, July 2; Computerworld, July 7

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/04/MNUL11JTB3.DTL