Investigators ask Google for your data if you watch certain YouTube videos

If you’ve ever jokingly wondered if your search or viewing history would “put you on some kind of list,” your concerns may be justified.

In now-unsealed court documents, ForbesGoogle was ordered to turn over names, addresses, phone numbers and user activity for YouTube accounts, as well as IP addresses for viewing select YouTube videos, as part of a larger criminal investigation by federal investigators.

The videos were sent to suspected cryptocurrency money launderers by undercover police officers using the username “elonmuskwhm.” In conversations with Bitcoin traders, investigators sent links to public YouTube tutorials on mapping via drones and augmented reality software. Forbes detail. The videos have been viewed more than 30,000 times, presumably by thousands of users unrelated to the case.

YouTube parent company Google was ordered by federal investigators to quietly turn over all such audience data between January 1 and January 8, 2023, but Forbes It could not be confirmed whether Google complied.

Privacy experts say forced data retrieval is inherently worrisome. Federal investigators argued that the request was legally justified because the data was “relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation, including providing identifying information about the perpetrator,” citing other police forces across the country. Reason for use. In a case in New Hampshire, police requested similar data during an investigation into a bomb threat that was live-streamed on YouTube — the order specifically asked for viewership information at selected timestamps during the live broadcast.

“As with all law enforcement requests, we have rigorous processes in place designed to protect our users’ privacy and constitutional rights while supporting the important work of law enforcement,” Google spokesman Matt Bryant said. Forbes. “We review each legal validity claim against developing case law, and we generally object to overbroad or otherwise inappropriate requests for user data, including objecting to some requests entirely.”

However, privacy experts are concerned about the precedent set by the court’s order, citing concerns about First and Fourth Amendment protections. Albert Fox-Cahn, executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Program, told the publication: “This is the latest chapter in a disturbing trend in which we see government agencies increasingly turning search warrants into Shift to digital dragnet.” “It’s unconstitutional, it’s horrific, and it happens every day.”

For years, supporters have called on Google to be more transparent about its data-sharing policies, with ongoing public arrests of protesters and the growing criminalization of abortions across the state raising concerns.

In December, Google updated its privacy policy to allow users to save location data directly to their devices rather than to the cloud, and to shorten the retention period of such storage — a new policy that also indirectly hindered investigative workarounds long used by law enforcement. Officials used Google location data to zero in on the suspect.

Such concerns have taken Google to court over the past year, including two state Supreme Court cases over the constitutionality of keyword search warrants that force websites to turn over personal Internet search data.