Google must surrender its users' personal information to Viacom

Google has been ordered to disclose personal information, including viewing habits and internet addresses to Viacom, in the latest phase of the ongoing legal battle between the two companies.

MTV parent Viacom filed a $1bn (£500m) lawsuit against Google, alleging breach of copyright by the internet giant's YouTube video-sharing business. Viacom claims to have identified around 160,000 unathorised clips on YouTube and believes the data can prove that a breach of copyright has taken place.

Google had argued that its viewing logs contained too much information and handing them over would infringe privacy, but the US court dismissed the argument as "speculative."

According to US reports, Google's lawyers have said they will ask Viacom to respect users' privacy and allow time for the data to be anonymised by Google.

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