If the linked article has a paywall, you can access this archived version instead: https://archive.ph/zyhax
The court orders show the government telling Google to provide the names, addresses, telephone numbers and user activity for all Google account users who accessed the YouTube videos between January 1 and January 8, 2023. The government also wanted the IP addresses of non-Google account owners who viewed the videos.
“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,” said Albert Fox-Cahn, executive director at the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. “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.” He said the orders were “just as chilling” as geofence warrants, where Google has been ordered to provide data on all users in the vicinity of a crime.
Well… the part they quoted is a little misleading.
The two situations they talked about at least on the face of it were:
So, to me both of those seem pretty reasonable. But of course the on-the-face-of-it explanation for #1 doesn’t completely make sense for a couple of different reasons. But I wouldn’t automatically class either of these as abuse by law enforcement without knowing more.
It’s crazy to me that this got 61 upvotes while the main concern here, that 30,000 unrelated people had their data handed over to the government, is just an aside in point 1.
It really concerns me that people think any of this reasonable. If this is “reasonable” then there’s nothing stopping cops from getting all of our data, whenever they want it. All they have to do is find one suspect who watched one video.
That’s fucking crazy and clearly unreasonable. Take my downvote for having an exceptionally bad opinion on this topic.
It doesn’t say it happened. It said Google received a court order. People challenge court orders sometimes, there’s just a process you have to go through to do it.
The whole article is honestly just weird. E.g. “Privacy experts from multiple civil rights groups told Forbes they think the orders are unconstitutional because they threaten to turn innocent YouTube viewers into criminal suspects.” That is… that’s not what “unconstitutional” means at all. Sometimes cops will question innocent people or knock on doors when they’re investigating crimes. If they’re doing it without court oversight, that’s dangerous. If “crimes” include things that aren’t actually crimes, that’s dangerous. If “knocking on doors” includes more than just actually asking questions to investigate, that’s dangerous. But I’m a little doubtful that they showed up at anyone’s door just because that person watched a YouTube video and started asking them questions related or unrelated to the specific crime they were investigating.
The article’s written in a way where you genuinely can’t tell some important details – they don’t say whether the video was public or unlisted, they don’t say whether the cops were the ones that uploaded it, there are important things like that that they don’t make clear. But the idea that the constitution says the cops can’t gather data under any circumstances to investigate a crime seems like just a knee-jerk “cops bad” reaction.
I don’t even necessarily disagree with your broader point. If the cops took a publicly-listed YouTube video and asked a court for the identities of 30,000 people who happened to watch it, and then the court agreed, and then Google gave them the data instead of pushing back legally (which the article claims they do sometimes), then sure, that’s wrong. But literally every one of those elements is unclear from the article whether it happened.
At the end of the article is an instance where the cops went to the court for a “geofencing” warrant and the court threw out their request because it was too broad. That’s the point of oversight and why having to get a warrant is an important step.
Like I say I’m honestly not completely disagreeing with you here. I definitely think too much data gets harvested about what every person does online and the cops are too freely able to access it with too little oversight. Depending on the details, maybe that’s what happened here, or maybe it was legit. I’m just saying I’m don’t agree with the assertion that it’s always wrong.
Most people don’t see the big picture. I remember people not supporting net neutrality.
Worry not, you are a voice of reason.
People are desperate to be fucked I guess
Neither of these is reasonable.
There certainly are situations where this could be reasonable; however, when your parameters return 30,000 people it’s not nearly tailored enough.
To get a warrant you need probable cause that a person committed a crime, I don’t see how a live stream could meet that burden unless it starts prior to the arrival of the police.
These are both abuses by law enforcement, or more clearly, a path that allows their job to be easier by infringing on people’s rights.
You don’t need probable cause that they committed a crime.
You need probable cause that the search will result in evidence of a crime.
Those aren’t the same thing.
The first one is horseshit though.
My theory for #1 is that it’s an unlisted video targeted at extremists or maybe a “How to make an illegal item” guide
Which I also think can be reasonable
Why would you make up a reason to justify the government seizing people’s data? Like damn I thought lemmy cared about privacy but this thread is wild with some of the comments I’m reading.
They were videos about using drones and AR to create maps. There’s nothing illegal about that.
https://mashable.com/article/google-ordered-to-hand-over-viewer-data-privacy-concerns
Yeah, this is hella sketchy. I don’t plan on ever using Google’s services again, but now I legit have to worry about all centralized websites in the US? I’ve been impressed with Biden at many points and screw Trump, but this is not a good look for the Biden Administration.