Have you ever jokingly wondered if your search and video viewing history might "put you on some kind of list"? Your concern may be more than justified.
In declassified (formerly top secret) court documents that were reviewed by Forbes, Google was ordered to hand over the names, addresses, phone numbers, IP addresses and user activity of YouTube accounts who watched selected videos on the service as part of a broader criminal investigation by federal investigators.
The videos were sent by the feds to a suspected cryptocurrency launderer with the username “elonmuskwhm”.
In conversations with the bitcoin trader, the researchers sent links to public YouTube courses on drone mapping and augmented reality software. The videos have been viewed more than 30.000 times, possibly by thousands of users unrelated to the case.
Google, YouTube's parent company, has since been ordered by federal investigators to hand over all of that viewing data for the period from January 1 to January 8, 2023. Forbes could not confirm whether Google complied with the order.
Mandatory data recovery is a concern in itself, according to privacy experts.
Federal investigators argued their request was legal because the data "would be relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation, including providing identification information about the perpetrators," citing a rationale used by nearly all police forces across the country. country.
