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Ruling opens customer data floodgates
USA - A judge's ruling in the Viacom vs. YouTube case sets a new and permissive standard for parties seeking to get their hands on the data companies retain about their customers. While not a legal precedent, the ruling will serve as a reference in future cases, potentially laying bare the trail of search terms we all leave behind.
Credit card companies know what you've bought. Phone companies know whom you've called. Electronic toll services know where you've gone. Internet search companies know what you've sought.
It might be reassuring, then, that companies have largely pledged to safeguard these repositories of data about you.
However, a recent federal court ruling ordering the disclosure of YouTube viewership records underscores the reality that even the most benevolent company can only do so much to guard your digital life: All their protections can vanish with one stroke of a judge's pen.
"Companies have a tremendous amount of very sensitive data on their customers, and while a company itself may treat that responsibly ... if the court orders it be turned over, there's not a lot that the company that holds the data can do," said Jennifer Urban, a law professor at the University of Southern California.
