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If you've ever jokingly wondered if your search or viewing history is going to "put you on some kind of list," your concern may be more than warranted.

In now unsealed court documents reviewed by Forbes, Google was ordered to hand over the names, addresses, telephone numbers, and user activity of Youtube accounts and IP addresses that watched select YouTube videos, part of a larger criminal investigation by federal investigators.


The videos were sent by undercover police to a suspected cryptocurrency launderer under the username "elonmuskwhm." In conversations with the bitcoin trader, investigators sent links to public YouTube tutorials on mapping via drones and augmented reality software, Forbes details. The videos were watched more than 30,000 times, presumably by thousands of users unrelated to the case.

YouTube's parent company Google was ordered by federal investigators to quietly hand over all such viewer data for the period of Jan. 1 to Jan. 8, 2023, but Forbes couldn't confirm if Google had complied.


The mandated data retrieval is worrisome in itself, according to privacy experts. Federal investigators argued the request was legally justified as the data "would be relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation, including by providing identification information about the perpetrators," citing justification used by other police forces around the country. In a case out of New Hampshire, police requested similar data during the investigation of bomb threats that were being streamed live to YouTube — the order specifically requested viewership information at select time stamps during the live streams.

"With all law enforcement demands, we have a rigorous process designed to protect the privacy and constitutional rights of our users while supporting the important work of law enforcement," Google spokesperson Matt Bryant told Forbes. "We examine each demand for legal validity, consistent with developing case law, and we routinely push back against over broad or otherwise inappropriate demands for user data, including objecting to some demands entirely."

Privacy experts, however, are worried about the kind of precedent the court's order creates, citing concerns over the protections of the first and fourth amendments. "This is the latest chapter in a disturbing trend where we see government agencies increasingly transforming search warrants into digital dragnets," executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project Albert Fox-Cahn told the publication. "It’s unconstitutional, it’s terrifying, and it’s happening every day."
https://mashable.com/article/google-ord ... y-concerns

I'm sure this same approach will be employed to target "far-right" "domestic terrorists" (i.e., almost all members of of almost all gun forums).

tector wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2024 8:48 pm I'm sure this same approach will be employed to target "far-right" "domestic terrorists" (i.e., almost all members of of almost all gun forums).

Or, anyone who does not worship the leftist ideology. I got a kick out of James Carville's comments about "Preachy women.... That sums up most of it.

tector wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2024 8:48 pm I'm sure this same approach will be employed to target "far-right" "domestic terrorists" (i.e., almost all members of of almost all gun forums).

They are going to have to hack the forum before I give them anything. Hell, I will delete the forum completely before they try to make me surrender any data.

Legio wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2024 9:20 am

tector wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2024 8:48 pm I'm sure this same approach will be employed to target "far-right" "domestic terrorists" (i.e., almost all members of of almost all gun forums).

They are going to have to hack the forum before I give them anything. Hell, I will delete the forum completely before I surrender any data.

Be sure to have a plan before the subpoena arrives. You're not the hildebeest who can get away with ignoring one and flicking a handkerchief.

Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death at age 48 in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of a period in the United States in which Cold War tensions fueled fears of widespread communist subversion. He alleged that numerous communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers had infiltrated the United States federal government, universities, film industry, and elsewhere. Ultimately, he was censured for refusing to cooperate with, and abusing members of, the committee established to investigate whether or not he should be censured. The term "McCarthyism", coined in 1950 in reference to McCarthy's practices, was soon applied to similar anti-communist activities. Today, the term is used more broadly to mean demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents.

Seems old Joe was right.

P5 Guy wrote: ↑Mon Mar 25, 2024 11:40 am Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death at age 48 in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of a period in the United States in which Cold War tensions fueled fears of widespread communist subversion. He alleged that numerous communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers had infiltrated the United States federal government, universities, film industry, and elsewhere. Ultimately, he was censured for refusing to cooperate with, and abusing members of, the committee established to investigate whether or not he should be censured. The term "McCarthyism", coined in 1950 in reference to McCarthy's practices, was soon applied to similar anti-communist activities. Today, the term is used more broadly to mean demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents.

Seems old Joe was right.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/14000 ... UTF8&psc=1