July 4, 2008 5:01 pm

Personal Information and Security

Due to this ruling on Youtube! we are adopting a new standard of deleting logs after a month. Hopefully other sites also adopt this method.
What this means is, that we will be deleting our log files monthly, that keep track of your pages visited, and your IP addresses. While this information helps us track down multiple accounts and cheaters, at some point in the future that information could be requested by some bully corporation, and if this ruling is any indication, we'd be required to give up your personal information and your browsing habits to that corporation.
To keep it simple, it means that we're protecting your privacy, and making it harder for large corporations to request information about where you've been looking on the internet.
If you share a computer with someone else, you're fine! Don't worry about it :)

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Geeze, I'd already almost given up YouTube, but this... x.x Thank you for doing what you can to help protect our privacy.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

It's not just a matter of them protecting their copyright, guys. They're asking for the logs for everyone who so much as viewed something on YouTube, so they can find out if it's their copyrighted material or not. Can you imagine if they'll hit fanvideos? Clips? Screen caps?

A part of that article was also about proving that Youtube gets more hits from copyrighted material and not user generated material, which can put Youtube at a higher liability. That means even non-Viacom stuff is going to be looked at. Whether or not you looked at something like Keith Answers versus a music video is going to be looked at.

Personally, I thank Keith and the rest of Subeta for keeping us in mind.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Just the thing is that the government is making a log on every citizen of all personal information, library records, emails and such, and that they'll use it to find terrorists. cough Probably not. They're just finding people that they don't like, and someday use that info against them, whether real or fabricated if someday they need to bump 'em off/lose their job/ruin their life. Plus, what would happen if someone happened to gain access to it? Think of all the people in the military that those laptops had personal info on and all the mess that could've happened.

Plus, all these big companies will sell your info, they just want a quick buck too. There's no way that anyone could stop them, even with legal intervention after the fact.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

It's a nice gesture, but it's really worth noting that we really don't have that much privacy these days. Much less on the internet. Besides- even if THE MAN has your personal information from these logs, what is the damage done, other than a feeling of a loss of control? If you folks, like me, are generally law-abiding citizens, then you REALLY aren't going to be worth the time of BIG OL' MEANIE CORPORATIONS to ponder over individually. If anything, you're a STATISTIC, compiled into a slab on a pie chart with 47% of your fellow users. Truth is, these giants who float above the law don't really give a damn about what you just posted on your Myspace (unless they can use it as proof that you're infringing a copyright and therefore are a threat to profits), and they aren't about to sift through 68 hours of AIM or MSN logs that are little more than emoticons and unnecessary abuse of japanese phrases. That's not to say that it's ACCEPTABLE for the bigwigs of the world to be hovering over us. But hell, until something can be changed, you need to find a way to keep your head on straight and not to resort to mass hysteria, which you are very much capable of. THAT is what will kill you ten times faster. Bottom line? If you're not guilty of copyright infringement, you don't need to live in constant fear that companies like Viacom are aquiring your information. If anything, focus your fears on the low-level hackers that swarm these intarwebs. THEY are the ones who will ruin your credit, drain your (real life) bank account, commit identity fraud, and overall just ruin your life. Sure, it's a lot easier to point the finger at the Suits Who Are Destroying The World, Damn Them- but it's not always practical. But then again, if it's too much trouble for you to properly arrange your priorities of what to fear, then go for it. Let's just go ahead and say that Viacom is the next Big Brother and is the physical incarnation Satan himself. THAT'll solve our problems! Thank you, and goodnight.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Wow Im not even going to go on Youtube anymore =.Thanks Subeta for letting me know ^^.And I think this is a invading Peoples privacy to be honest =(.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Holy cow! I just read through all these comments and OH MY GAWD there are a lot of different things going on here.

First, to everyone saying this is pointless, that it wont make a difference-- to everyone who is basically saying all of this is trivial or saying something about Keith-- Why are you so negative?

If everyone thought nothing made a difference can you imagine where we would be? No one would fight for anything, for ";justice"; or for ";evil"; because ";it wont make a difference"; Jeezzzus you guys need to take some kind of optimism pill.

To Keith and the staff of Subeta-- you guys are always posting such interesting things.. if it wasnt for Subeta I wouldn't have known about the firefox world record download thing, or ever given thought to the idea of websites doing something like this to counter large corporations.. its so nice ^-^ Thanks for looking out for us.. even if you never get attacked by Viacom, at least you're spreading the word!

Also I might add I totally disagree with that ruling And i'm a little ashamed that google/youtube wasn't on the ball as far as protecting user privacy goes..

Oh well! Life goes on..

Love the conspiracy theories in here by the way I like to dip into those now and then.. fun to read!.. Or believe...

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

What some of you don't seem to realize is that Viacom is being given the IP address of EVERYBODY on YouTube, not just those who have uploaded Viacom's copyrighted materials. Most of that information is completely irrelevant to their case, so there is no reason for them to obtain it.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Thanks, that's nice.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

still finds it kinda funny that people seem to think that since this site is deleting the log files None of your info gets out. N if you really do believe that then maybe you shouldnt go on any other sites.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

It's not like Viacom is doing anything wrong, they're just trying to protect their property.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Thank you for protecting my privacy.

If you feel the need in the future to save only the log files on a 2 weekly basis ... be my guest.

.... This means that I will never set one digital foot on Youtube again. ...ever ...

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

That's good to hear!

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Scarsdale your right i wonder if there is any legal way we could beath the hell out of viacom

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

and by the way, My youtube video is now taken down, even though it is a personally owned one. I understand that they ";own"; it since we downloaded it.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Quote by keith Lets see, this information is in those logs: IP address (your location), referrer (where you came frrom to get to Subeta), your browser, your operating system, your request (exactly what you asked from the subeta servers, including comment text, forum text, etc)

Thanks for trying to take care of us, your users! This is my stuff that I would not want passed around to anyone! If they don't want us to watch their videos or use them then they should put up blocks. Viacom just sucks and ruins every site they take over. Yay KEITH!!!

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Good precedent. Thanks, Keith.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Most of the ISPs in the world log their user info, so there's always a way if a company had any legal problems with you (whether real or not), they can get it.

But I really think they'll be going after the people that have uploaded the videos, but I don't think that fining people that have viewed them would be easily done. :/ What, they going to fine the millions of people 75K for each time they view it?

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Thank you for keeping our interests and privacy in your thoughts.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Gawd vidcom suk hard. Thanks a lot for protecting us! I hope that one day vidcom will get a taste of their own medicene.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Quote:

; border: 1px solid ; font-family: georgia; font-size: 10;">We really need to stand up and stop these companies from taking over our civil liberties.

Stealing their copyrighted material and posting it on a video sharing site is a CIVIL LIBERTY? Hahah.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

lol @ thus entire thing. Making people worry about it. Quote:

; border: 1px solid ; font-family: georgia; font-size: 10;"> Viacom is sticking its nose where it doesn't belong,

Big meanies viaCOM wanting to stop people from uploading thier copy written material. =/ shame on them. Heaven forbid them to want to lose $$$ cause of it.

Maybe people on this site should ";steal"; other peoples artwork. You people get points/items for doing Art for others. What if they just started taking your art, make copies of it and started handed it out for free. No real difference.

since you can see our referrer links, I guess you can see I came here just now from Neopets.

whatever anyone does/sites they visit your info is logged, always has been always will be.

Continue on with your paranoia =)

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Thanks for caring about us and about our privacy hugs Keith

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Um...the site linked to in this article was also ordered to hand over information on all viewers of that particle article. In other words, anybody who clicks on that link is going to get logged for lawsuit purposes

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Stupid Viacom. The stupid meanyheads that want our info will still be able to get it, even if stuff's deleted. They have their ways. But this will make it harder for them, so thanks. I'm all for stickin' it to the man (I've always wanted to say that, so please pardon my stupidity and the fact that it really doesn't have much to do with our situation).

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Thanks, Keith. c:
It's nice to see site owners actually looking out for the site's users.

It's absolutely ridiculous that the judge actually ordered Google to hand over such information, though. It's breaking the VPPA, among other US laws, as well as various international privacy laws. A lot of the information issued to Viacom is completely irrelevant to their case, and anyone with a single functioning brain cell can see that.
It just shows you how much corruption there really is out there.

I was reading an article online about other cases involving Google a while ago, and I found this amusing:

'â€œWe supported Google at the time,â€ Mr. Rotenberg said, â€œbut we also said that it was a mistake for Google to be saving so much information because it creates a risk.â€'

The prophecy has been fulfilled.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Seems like an utterly pointless procedure to me, unless there's illegal happenings going on in Subeta.

I don't watch videos on youtube that break copyright so frankly I don't really care. If it's the way Viacom want to do things it's the way they want to do things. Everyone's het up about personal infomation being given away, but we do it all the time without a seconds though.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Thank you , thank you, thank you! I get it and totally appreciate the steps taken.* hisses at nosey corporations and slurks off muttering about privacy*

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

witchy_woman, I'm not an expert, but I doubt you can delete the logs and data THEY stored by deleting your cookies o.o

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

I don't really understand it, but thanks ^^.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Good move! Thank you!

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Ok so I've read everyones comments and I'm still confused.. Does this mean that Large Corporations might, just for the heck of it ask Keith for our PERSONAL information and therefore know where we live, work, breathe and which websites we visit?

For 1, WHY would they want that information and For 2, What do they do with the information once they get it? Stalk Us? Thats kinda creepy! I know the Govt is ALWAYS watching and listening but what ever happened to the whole ";Its a free country"; theory? I don't mind if Keith or other admins search my logs but it confuses me as to WHY other people would want/need to! For Adware purposes? WTF is wrong with the Govt anyway Watches V for Vendetta again lol

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Thank you so much for this. I was so angry when I read that about youtube.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Good call, Keith. You're awesome.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

good grief just delete your cookies/cache each day when you get offline how hard can that be my firefox is automatically set to clear everything when I log off, how hard can that be ,hell you cant take a leak without gov knowing about it so whats the big deal

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Viacom is the actual devil. To quote from a message board, ";Viacom despises logic and happiness.";

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Thanks for being one of the good guys

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Youtube should have never kept everything logged in the first place, really.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Thank you! n_n

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Good on you Keith and assorted staff.

Yes, we are being watched, yes we are being spied on. Google has a HUGE datacenter simply for mining the internets and your info. Huge. Viacom wants to prove that they are ";losing"; money with youtube, but it will not end there. The problem is Youtube is worldwide, and many many countries in teh world do not/will not abide by Youtube puking out information about their citizens.

I am curious, though, Keith. Why mention this one and not the recent ruling in Sweden re. complete and total monitoring of all internet traffic going in and out of that country ?

The US is not the only one out there facing privacy and big brother problems. Good on you, Keith, I say again, for not just rolling over and for 'trying' to make people aware of what is going on in the world outside of one little petsite.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

thanks you guys it may not help in the long run but at least you care<3

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Thank you! I'm livid over what the US courts are doing, the privacy laws in my country are more stringent, and yet that's no protection to me.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Viacom is sticking its nose where it doesn't belong, in my opinion. Why does that corp need my name and IP address to figure out if YouTube is allowing copywrited information has gotten viewed. This is just another nail in our coffins of freedom.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

they need only go to the ISP for the logs. not difficult.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

All they have to do is ask the ISPs where people are visiting online. I do know that log files are kept and even police can get them without court order.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

This doesn't make much sense. I've never seen anything like it before in my life.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

can someone message me about this?:

i went onto youtube and it said either javascript is turned off or i need to update my adobe flash player what should i do? i have the flash player updated

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Blah. I don't see the point to this all. Honestly this makes Keith look incredibly arrogant and self-righteous. He's making everyone feel like they're ";fighting the power";, and that subeta ";CAN MAKE A CHANGE";. If you think this change is going to stop the government from spying on us, then you're incredibly blind. If the government really wanted to, they could find out every little fact about your entire life. WHETHER OR NOT subeta deletes the logs monthly. The entire interwebs is cached and logged for many purposes. (Mainly so the government can spy on you) You can't be safe on the internet. That's really the last place you'll ever be truly safe.

I hate to be entirely blunt but this change is pointless.

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

Thanks a lot Keith <3 It really means a lot to know how much Subeta cares for it's players. The staff always works so hard to make sure we all have a wonderful time. I'd never leave this site. Love yah all~

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

You guys rock, thanks!! And thanks for linking to the article about youtube, that's good to know that stuff like this can happen!! <3

December 31, 1969, 7:00 pm by

i hate viacom more than all you people put togather!

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