We’ve all made the joke: “If I search XXXX on Google, I’ll end up on an FBI watchlist. According to a recent report, this could actually be the case if YouTube users watched some very specific YouTube videos in 2023. A United States federal court has ordered Google to release the identities of tens of thousands of users who viewed certain videos over a certain period of time. In this case, only users from the USA are likely to be specifically affected, but in the future new cases could also affect users from Europe.
According to a report by Forbes, federal investigators have obtained court-approved subpoenas for all YouTube users who watched tutorials about mapping with drones and augmented reality software. Investigators had communicated covertly with a suspected money launderer, sent them links to the relevant videos, and then demanded that Google identify anyone who viewed the videos immediately afterwards.
The subpoena contained names, addresses, phone numbers and browsing history for the Google accounts of up to 30,000 people and tracked traffic to the videos in question for the period from January 1 to January 8, 2023. It is not clear whether Google has complied with demands for user data, even though companies are typically reluctant to fight subpoenas.
According to experts from the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project and the Electronic Privacy Information Center interviewed by Forbes, the subpoenas may have violated the First and Fourth Amendments of the US Constitution. These fundamental laws protect freedom of speech and limit unreasonable searches and seizures.
Such potential violations typically go unaddressed unless a victim fights them in court. This often leads to protracted litigation that can go all the way to the United States Supreme Court before being resolved.
This article originally appeared in our sister magazine PC-World and was translated and supplemented by us.
