The Background Of The Privacy In Youtube

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02 Nov 2017

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Introduction

As technology develops, people used to get more socialized than earlier times by sharing their data and interacting with others using different kinds of websites in the internet. Out of them, YouTube can be highlighted as one of the main dedicating website.

YouTube can be defined as a video streaming website which allows users to upload, view and share videos online. It is owned by the Google cooperation and was found in year 2005. Due to the cool features of it like user friendliness, easiness of video uploading, video commenting, liking or disliking videos, reporting about videos etc. it has been easily got popular among people.

As this website has become more popular now a day, many problems arise along with it. Among it, Privacy can be identified as one of the main important aspect to be protected in YouTube.

Privacy in YouTube

By the end of the year YouTube was found, it has been visited 50 million times per day (Art Laco, March 31, 2010) and now more than 800 million users are visiting YouTube each and every month and it contains millions of videos (YouTube, 2013). As it is used by different kinds of people, YouTube will not become a boundary for the uploading video contents because these data will go far beyond it. Sometimes it might get spread up to a television channel as well (Gretchen Siegchrist, 2013). These factors indicate that there is a high probability of privacy getting violated as it is accessed by many people.

One of the main ways privacy can get violated in YouTube is through personal videos. Even the first uploaded video in YouTube was a personal video, "Me at the Zoo" which was recorded in San Diego Zoo demonstrating about elephants (Art Laco, March 31, 2010). This does not mean that there is no risk in uploading personal privacy in present, because things have changed rapidly due to YouTube’s popularity and technology development.

Considering the factor, uploading videos in YouTube might affect the privacy mainly in two different ways.

Privacy of the people who have got captured in the video might get violated.

Might affect the privacy of the recorded place.

When looking at the first point, revealing personal privacy of others purposely or unknowing is against the YouTube’s rules and it is highlighted as following; "….revealing other people’s personal information…… are taken very seriously. Anyone caught doing these things may be permanently banned from YouTube" (YouTube, 2013). These kinds of activities are prohibited according to Google’s code of conducts which guides the human behavior and it is described in the "Privacy, Security and Freedom of Expression" section mentioning that, necessary actions will be taken against privacy violation (Google, April 25, 2012). According to YouTube and Google, actions which have taken against these activities govern the user’s behavior. So it can be called as ethical. As it reflects ethical principles, it is correct legally and socially because it influence user’s attitudes and behaviors.

The recent example for revealing other people’s privacy is the meeting of Prime Minister and army officers which took place in Bangladesh and it was recorded and uploaded in YouTube. This action made their privacy getting leaked. Because of this incident YouTube was blocked in Bangladesh at that time period (BBC News, Mrach 9, 2009).

This action can be analyzed according to the two ethical theories. According to Deontological theory which looks whether the action is correct or incorrect and the Consequentialist theory which focuses on whether the end result has brought benefits towards many people, the action is unethical for Bangladesh because uploading this content in YouTube has indicated many negative things regarding the meeting. So, in Bangladesh and in many other countries these kinds of actions will be considered as illegal, because they try to maintain them as confidential. But according to Media’s perspective, this action might be ethically correct because their duty is reporting news to the world and meantime it might be against the social and law of Bangladesh.

As mentioned previously, privacy of the recorded place can get violated because of uploading these kinds of videos in a public website. The place which it was recorded might be protected with privacy in order to avoid issues like terrorist attacks and to protect the privacy of the involved persons in it. If these kinds of contents were uploaded in YouTube, then straightaway the privacy will get violated according YouTube’s sets of rules and Google’s code of conducts as described earlier.

The best example for this kind of a situation is that, capturing and video recordings are not allowed in upper floors in "Suria KLCC" shopping complex in Malaysia (Hopang, March 21, 2009). But some of the videos which have been captured in this shopping complex were taken in the upper floors and still can be found in YouTube (TravellerJ, March 9, 2011). These actions are ethically wrong according to Deontological and Consequentialist theory as the action and the final result of it will be violating the privacy of the shopping complex.

It is also legally and socially wrong according to the shopping complex management’s perspective as their rules and regulations have been violated. According to the perspective of the person who captured and uploaded this video might be ethically correct if his/her main intention was not seeking others privacy but still it will be illegal as he/she failed to obey the rules of that place.

Anyway, sharing personal privacy might be ethically, legally and socially correct in certain aspects like the first uploaded video in YouTube. Even the story of Adam and Eve expelled from the Garden of Eden is a personal privacy story of them (Sabine Trepte; Leonard Reinecke, January 01, 2011). But people have the right to protect their personal privacy especially in a website like YouTube. In countries like United Kingdom, they have implemented many privacy laws like the Human Rights Act, Data Protection Act etc. to protect personal privacy.

The next main factor in YouTube is that, the website records all the viewed videos of a user (YouTube, January 08, 2013). This can impact the society as it monitors users accessing videos. By recording them, YouTube suggests similar videos for the user in its main page as recommended videos (Google Developers, September 20, 2012). This can also violate users’ privacy because when another user access YouTube in the same computer, then by going through with the main page it can be identified the videos which have been watched previously.

When analyzing this situation according to the Deontological theory, the action might be ethically correct for YouTube because their main purpose is to provide a better service for their users by recommending similar videos which they might like to watch later. But according to the user’s perspective, it might be ethically wrong because their privacy is getting violated. According to Consequentialist theory, it is ethically correct because YouTube hopes that the end result which is recommending similar videos will bring benefits towards many users. In case if these details were misused, then according to Consequential theory it will be ethically wrong because the end result will be violating users personal privacy and meantime it will be violating Google’s code of conducts as they have promised to protect users information as confidential (Google, April 25, 2012).

Finally, the security of YouTube also should be concerned intensely as it is one of the key elements which can protect user’s privacy in YouTube. The latest incident where many users have faced error messages when using YouTube and it is suspected as YouTube has been hacked (Louise Boyle, October 19, 2012). This does not mean YouTube should focus mainly on hackers. Advertising Medias also focuses on collecting personal details of users in order to conduct different operations. These details can be misused which can violate user’s privacy (Mike Shema, October 11, 2012). This can become a social issue as well because it can create many problems towards the user mainly through privacy violation.

And also, YouTube members should provide their personal details when getting registered. These details are very sensitive and should be confident. According to Google’s code of conduct, they have requested users to trust them with their personal details and they have mentioned that necessary security procedures have been taken in order to protect user’s personal details (Google, April 25, 2012). But countries like France have already proposed a law which charges a tax for the organizations who misuse or fails to protect user’s personal privacy (Rezzan Huseiyn, February 01, 2013).

All these factors indicate that security is linked with privacy. So, one of YouTube’s main responsibilities is to protect the website against security threats otherwise it can affect millions of user’s privacy.

Solutions & Suggestions

Keeping personal information confidentially without sharing through videos or in other ways in YouTube is up to users except in situations like accounts have been hacked or misused by other parties. So, users have a solution or a method to protect their privacy in YouTube. But many users are not aware of these things and taking necessary actions like educating them about privacy will help to overcome from these situations.

YouTube also can follow or implement some methods to analyze the videos that the users are uploading to check whether the contents are violating another person or a place or a group’s privacy before making it available online in order to prevent privacy violations up to a certain limit. As it always said, "Prevention is better than cure".

Conclusion

According to the analyzed details, privacy has got violated in different kind of ways in YouTube. These privacy violations also have affected societies, ethics, laws and professional codes of conducts. Somehow YouTube and Google have taken necessary actions and solutions to control these issues up to a certain limit through their codes of conduct and community guidelines.

Not only for YouTube, all the users who are currently using the website and who are going to use it has a responsibility to take necessary actions as YouTube have guided to protect their privacy and meantime considering and protecting others privacy.

So, maintaining privacy in YouTube is very much essential as it contains sensitive data of all users.



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