What's Really Behind YouTube's New Comment Policy

In my opinion all of this has to do with requests for user information from Google and others.

In my opinion it also explains why they and most others are now requiring real names and cell phone numbers.

The way I figure it this is a business move on the part of these social media providers.



According to the Wall Street Journal, "Google said earlier this year that the number of "user data requests" by authorities in the U.S. and abroad climbed to more than 42,000 per year in 2012." This is up 52% from the number of requests made in 2010.

Currently when police and spy agencies are looking for the identity of someone commenting (Step 1) they must make a request for that person's ISP. (Step 2) Enforcement then uses that person's ISP to make a request to that person's internet provider which then provides the information needed to identify that particular customer. As you can see this is a two step process which can take time. It also cost money both for enforcement and the services providers. What business isn't looking for ways to save money, even if it may not actually benefit or perhaps even risk security for it's users?

Although the social media sites are forbidden by federal law to release the exact number, the article above gives us somewhat an approximation of 3,500 requests a month that are made to Google alone. It's rather a burdensome process. First the provider must search trillions of bytes of information stored on their servers to find the exact date, time and page. Then troll through all the numerous comments to find an exact match before they can match up that commenter to his or hers ISP.

All this has costs associated with it. By requiring users to identify themselves, providers can reduce these number of requests. Thus saving them both time and money. As you can see, agents of the government and police already will then know who that person is. Hence no need to go through the two step process above. It also gets the criticism off the backs of providers since users willingly surrendered their own ID and information. In other words this is not an improvement. Rather it's something that benefits just about everyone involved except the user him or herself who's security online becomes reduced.

NOTE:
Even if a user refuses to provide their cell phone number,
many are using direct video upload apps from their smart phones.

What, you've never heard about caller ID?
DUH!

This is not only a dream come true for law enforcement, it also is for anyone with malicious intentions. Requiring comments be linked to Google+ has further ramifications. Google+ then can be linked to Facebook, Twitter and dozens of other sites that in turn can be linked to a huge number of additional networking sites. Combining links to everything one does online makes it easy for employers, cops, the NSA, businesses and all kinds of unsavory characters to get all the information they will ever need about someone. Here's how it plays out in the real world......

Amazing Mind Reader Reveals His 'Gift'
Published on Sep 24, 2012


People are all up in arms over Edward Snowden's revelations about the NSA. That's nothing compared to voluntarily handing over everything about yourself not only to the NSA but every knucklehead in the world.

There's always someone who will say, who cares, I have nothing to hide. That someone needs to watch the video clip above again. I'm not entirely sure why anyone would feel comfortable (for any jailbird, ex, employer, government official or someone who's taken a hankering to stalking them) and that this would be A-OK with them. Then again I don't stand naked in front of a window like some folks are prone to do either :-)