YouTube, Viacom agree to mask viewer data

In a nod to privacy complaints, Viacom won't be told the identities of individuals who watch video clips on the popular video-sharing site YouTube. Viacom and other copyright holders have agreed to let YouTube mask user IDs and Internet addresses when Google's online video site hands over viewership records in a $1 billion lawsuit accusing YouTube of enabling copyright infringement. A federal judge ordered the database produced in a July 1 ruling widely criticized by privacy activists. Lawyers for Viacom and the other plaintiffs signed an agreement with YouTube on Monday saying they would accept measures to help YouTube preserve the anonymity of the records. Under the agreement, YouTube can swap the user logins and IP addresses with other, presumably anonymous signifiers; YouTube has a week to propose its method. The masked database will still have to let the plaintiffs determine which individual watched which clip and when, but the records will cloak cases in which an existing identifier contains personally identifiable information - such as first initial and full last name in a user ID. In limited circumstances, it may still be possible to track records to a specific individual based on that person's viewing habits.