Google to hand over YouTube user data

A US Court has ordered Google to hand over YouTube user data, in a ruling that could have serious privacy implications.


Thousands of users' personal details including log-in user IDs, IP addresses and video clip details will be passed to media giant Viacom, which requested the information to support a copyright case against Google.

Viacom, owner of MTV Networks and Paramount, filed a copyright infringement case against the search engine after over hundreds of thousands of its videos were been found on the video-sharing site YouTube.

Viacom claimed the data would only be used to support its case. "Any information that we or our outside advisors obtain will be used exclusively for the purpose of proving our case against YouTube and Google and will be handled subject to a court protective order and in a highly confidential manner."

YouTube remains the most popular video-sharing site with 130.5m unique users during May, according to Nielsen Online.