International Law

Google and Viacom agree to protect user privacy

When the order was made that Google provide Viacom with its raw user logs (a move which significantly compromised user privacy), I wrote that the court could have ordered that the information be anonymised. (Canadian Privacy Law Blog: Commentary on the YouTube / Viacom order)

I don't think I can take any credit for this next move, but I'm sure the loud outcry has had an influence: Google and Viacom have agreed to anonymise the data using a one-way function so that the actual IP addresses cannot be reverse-engineered and Viacom has agreed to not even try. The stipulation filed with the court is here. Extract:

IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED AND AGREED, by and between the undersigned counsel of record:

1. Substituted Values: When producing data from the Logging Database pursuant to the Order, Defendants shall substitute values while preserving uniqueness for entries in the following fields: User ID, IP Address and Visitor ID. The parties shall agree as promptly as feasible on a specific protocol to govern this substitution whereby each unique value contained in these fields shall be assigned a correlative unique substituted value, and preexisting interdependencies shall be retained in the version of the data produced. Defendants shall promptly (no later than 7 business days after execution of this Stipulation) provide a proposed protocol for this substitution. Defendants agree to reasonably consult with Plaintiffs? consultant if necessary to reach agreement on the protocol.

2. Non-Circumvention: The parties agree that they shall not engage in any efforts to circumvent the encryption utilized pursuant to Paragraph 1 this Stipulation. This Paragraph does not limit in any way any party?s rights under Paragraph 8 below.

For background, see all posts tagged: Viacom v Google. Also, the Ontario Privacy Commissioner applauds this move: CNW Group | OFFICE OF THE INFORMATION AND PRIVACY COMMISSIONER/ONTARIO | Commissioner Cavoukian Applauds Agreement Protecting YouTube Users' Privacy

Full post as published by The Canadian Privacy Law Blog on July 16, 2008 (boomark / email).