An online petition was launched a few days ago by some YouTube users who call themselves generically "users of the web." What initiated it is their concern regarding the judges' decision to force YouTube to hand over all of its users' private data to Viacom, a major American company that has accused it of copyright infringement.

The petition is addressed to Louis L. Stanton, the U.S. District Court Judge who made the decision to make public what was generally acknowledged as being a private matter. The people who launched the petition say that they don't owe any kind of explanation or details to Viacom. Part of their private data was disclosed only as a trade in for the materials received from YouTube. "We have freely chosen to grant YouTube/Google a limited use of our personal information in exchange for our use of the site. We have not granted any such permission to Viacom, and do not wish our usernames and IP addresses to be released to them without just cause," complain the petitioners.

Their initiative is more of a moral warning, because online petitions don't have any legal power over the Court's decisions. In order to still the waters, Viacom is assuring people that none of their private data will be used in their detriment, as their identities will not be disclosed to the company. "The personally identifiable information that YouTube collects from its users will be stripped from the data before it is transferred to Viacom. Viacom will use the data exclusively for the purpose of proving our case against You Tube and Google," the company's representatives say.

While Google has to defend its users' private data, it is accused of knowing more of the people than what it's willing to show. The company's application Street View has generated serious debates between human rights organizations. At the same time, the advertising system, that uses some personal information in order to individualize the content, is also criticized. Google's efforts to handle the accusations started with a change that appeared on the front page and that now links to the privacy policies of the company.