We should be more careful. 1 in 30,000 is a pretty good chance to not get found out, but when it comes to videos with smaller viewcounts, we should not be allowing them to be shared.

Also we should do something about the tracking links that people keep sharing here willynilly. Even if it's just a rule change. Feels like 6 months since I last posted about this without change.

  • Hurvitz [they/them]
    ·
    7 months ago

    click the link icon in the OP (they aren't super obvious ik)

    But here's the gist:

    In a just-unsealed case from Kentucky reviewed by Forbes, undercover cops sought to identify the individual behind the online moniker “elonmuskwhm,” who they suspect of buying bitcoin for cash, potentially running afoul of money laundering laws and rules around unlicensed money transmitting. In conversations with the user in early January, undercover agents sent links of YouTube tutorials for mapping via drones and augmented reality software, then asked Google for information on who had viewed the videos, which collectively have been watched over 30,000 times.

    The court orders show the government telling Google to provide the names, addresses, telephone numbers and user activity for all Google account users who accessed the YouTube videos between January 1 and January 8, 2023. The government also wanted the IP addresses of non-Google account owners who viewed the videos. The cops argued, “There is reason to believe that these records would be relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation, including by providing identification information about the perpetrators.”