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Online privacy at risk following court ruling

Online privacy issues have been brought into the limelight following a major lawsuit in the US between internet giant Google and broadcaster Viacom.

Privacy advocates are up in arms following a ruling by a US judge, which requires Google to hand over popular video sharing site, YouTube's user data to be used in the copyright infringement lawsuit.

Viacom wants the user data in order to prove its case that thousands of video clips posted on YouTube belong to its programmes and have been uploaded illegally.

However, privacy activists from the Electronic Frontier Foundation oppose the move because it may violate the online privacy of many internet users, apart from setting a bad precedent.

"IP addresses are the primary means for identifying individual speakers on the Internet," said attorney Kurt Opsahl of the nonprofit organisation.

"It's vital that they be protected and recognized as personally identifying information."

Both companies have said they are looking for a way to reveal the data without necessarily breaching the privacy of their online users.

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