If you watched certain YouTube videos, investigators demanded your data

Re:If you watched certain YouTube videos, investigators dema... by IncreasePosts on Sunday March 24, 2024 @03:23PM (#39809552)

It isn't clear, but it seems like investigators are saying "Give us a list of all IPs that watched these 8 youtube videos on this day". Considering all of the videos have 30,000 views total, if the videos were independent in some manner(ie not by the same creator, or recommended one after the other), the odds seem really low that more than 1 person watched all of them.

This seems in line with other types of legal subpoenas - I can't recall the exact situation, but after a string of bank robberies across a state, police subpoenaed cell tower records for cell phones that had pinged towers near each bank while it was being robbed, and that quickly led them to the robbers.

edit: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/08/how-cell-tower-d...

Turns out the cops got all the cell tower records for 4 rural robberies, and did the intersection themselves, but I don't know why the phone co couldn't do that.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:If you watched certain YouTube videos, investigators dema... by delusional on Sunday March 24, 2024 @04:00PM (#39809953)

I think I'd rather have some democratic governmental agency process the data, and just have the private entities provide it. It's much easier to make rules assuming the private companies are never supposed to process the data instead of trying to carve out exceptions.

I don't actually trust YouTube with processing my watch history when I use their service, but I don't have any other options.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:If you watched certain YouTube videos, investigators dema... by Lockal on Monday March 25, 2024 @08:43AM (#39815607)

It is very likely that they will only detect

1) automation scripts like https://addshore.com/2022/09/hunting-youtube-crypto-scams/

2) scrapers from analytics systems

3) botnet nodes to boost view count

[ Parent | on HN ]