If the FBI goes after your YouTube history, how far up the creek without a paddle are you?،
– But, Judge, I was watching YouTube videos with my eyes closed! Also, there was this construction noise across the street and I couldn't hear anything.
– Non pertinent. 20 years of isolation!
Are we closer to this dystopian reality? In light of recent revelations that the government is seeking personal information from people who watched certain YouTube videos, many people would say, “Oh, yes, we do!” As the report details, federal investigators requested information from Google on an undisclosed number of users: they needed their addresses, phone numbers and their activity on YouTube.
One case involved undercover agents seeking to identify a suspect known as “Elonmuskwhm,” suspected of illegal crypto transactions, by following viewers of certain YouTube tutorials.
Of course, this didn't sit well with privacy advocates, who raised concerns and argued that such government actions could infringe on constitutional rights, potentially treating innocent YouTube viewers as suspects.
Concerned activists say this is a trend that could expose sensitive personal information for no probable cause, challenging fundamental principles of privacy and freedom in the digital age.
Let's see what people thought about personal data leaks almost 40 years ago… and see if there is a parallel to be drawn between then and today.
Violation of privacy: judge rented Hitchcock films
It's 1987, Michael Jackson Bad the album makes teenage girls faint, Hulk Hogan beats Andre the Giant in front of 93,173 people, Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket is on the big screen and Ronald Reagan tells USSR leader Mikhail Gorbachev: “Tear down this wall!”
A judge named Robert Bork was also appointed to the Supreme Court. Some thought he had controversial views on privacy, so they played a joke on him and the media published his list of rental tapes.
This episode is known as the Bork Tape saga.
According to the list, Judge Bork's favorite actor appears to be Cary Grant, who appeared in 12 of the 146 videotapes, alongside Roger Moore and Alec Guinness. His favorite director seemed to be Alfred Hitchcock, who directed 12 of the lauded films. No X titles and nothing scandalous, right?
The leak of Bork's video rental history was intended to illustrate the potential dangers of allowing someone with certain views on privacy to have significant influence on the Supreme Court. It highlighted the ease with which an individual's private activities could become public and was used to argue the importance of protecting the right to privacy.
Even his opponents came to his defense
When the rent list was made public, Bork received help from the last place he could expect – from those who opposed him and his appointment. Several groups complained that the act violated Bork's right to privacy and questioned whether the movie being watched Saturday night was anyone's business.
One of the harshest critics of Bork's nomination urged the District of Columbia to pass a law prohibiting video stores from showing movie titles rented by individuals. The American Civil Liberties Union, another Bork opponent, complained to the editor of the newspaper that leaked the list, saying his article was “tantamount to breaking into the judge's home to determine what books he is reading“.
Howard Simon, then executive director of the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) of Michigan, said:
That's what privacy is. This generally includes the right to impose limits on the information collected about you and the information that generally circulates.
Ah, these quotes certainly don't seem to be from 1987. On the contrary, they seem current.
SIM card swap scam: can the drama turn into tragedy?
I can almost hear you saying, “Yeah, well, that's not my problem, since I only watch these ten YouTube channels. Plus, I never let anyone else use my phone… so it's okay! “
This won't help you at all when things go wrong, as we'll see in a moment.
Before that, let's not forget the most recent fraud: the SIM card swap scam phenomenon.
SIM swap fraud is a type of identity theft in which criminals trick a carrier into transferring a victim's phone number to a SIM card in the fraudster's possession. In doing so, the attacker takes control of phone calls, text messages and potentially access to secure services.
Usually, SIM swap scams are carried out to empty one's bank account. Meanwhile, if the thief decides to watch a bunch of no-no videos while logged into your account, you'll have a very hard time trying to explain to the FBI or other three-letter institution what you did or what you did. I do not do it.
The two problems with someone viewing your YouTube history
The idea of exposing one's YouTube history poses two privacy concerns. Both are serious, but one can be fatal.
The first problem is what leaksthe second is who does what with the leak.
For example, you wear a Cannibal corpse t-shirt and your YouTube history leak reveals that you're headbanging to Taylor Swift and watching The Kardashians in private.
All joking aside, the real danger, in my humble opinion, is when the notion of crime changes overnight. You know, if tomorrow's leaders decide that all of a sudden the same things that were legal yesterday are punishable today. If you think it's impossible, think again.
So, is there a foolproof solution to the problem? Are we 100% sure that our web activity won't get us into trouble in the future? Is there a set of dos and don'ts when it comes to how we use our phones and browse the web?
I don't think there is a solution at the moment, because our digital age is completely unknown. These were the wild years of the Web. Many tremors will occur before the dust settles. It is up to the months and years to come to develop categorical rules, if this is possible.
I think we still navigate the darkness of the night with our eyes closed. The question remains whether we raise our phones to capture a beautiful dawn or whether we remain in the dark (literally) because of our YouTube history.
Until that day comes, you can check out different VPN solutions and see if anything works for you.
