Google Agrees To Give Up User Data On YouTube
 

There is a very interesting Business Week article published this morning about Google?s settlement yesterday and agreement to turn over user data to Viacom lawyers.

The title of the article sets the tone right off the bat? ?MTV isn?t being evil?. Google, on the other hand.?

The article points out Google?s spin machine is claiming victory being they are allowed to hide some identifying user data in their logs they are handing over. (and looking at the comments everyone is thanking Google for protecting their rights).

But? Business Week points out that Google is trying to save its own ass by turning this into a user privacy issue:

The thinly veiled implication of YouTube?s statement is that Viacom wanted to do bad things with users? data. Perhaps, it planned to follow the music industry?s example: tracing IP addresses to deliver lawsuits to everyone who watched Jon Stewart online.

But, here?s the reality. Viacom isn?t interested in suing YouTube users. Honestly, Viacom may not even be all that interested in suing Google.

Ultimately, Viacom wants to be paid what it thinks is a fair value for its content. That means proving to Google, the courts, and everyone else that the content Viacom spends millions to create draws audiences and advertisers in a way that user home movies don?t.

Its a interesting case to follow.

So thats the spin from Google but what is in this for Viacom (MTV) ?

Despite how Google makes Viacom appear, it?s not out to get users. Moreover, Google is not a hero of user privacy. It collects the data in the first place, in part, to personalize the YouTube experience and, in part, to sell ads. Viacom wants the data, ultimately, for a similar purpose: to generate more online advertising revenue.

While the Viacom/Google war might be coming to a end soon Google has many more people coming for it via YouTube.

Got a link?

Interesting stuff.

This is interesting, I guess I might lose all my Barney episodes on Youtube.