How do you file a successful YouTube privacy complaint?
September 3, 2016 2:35 PM   Subscribe

There's a video of me on YouTube that I really don't want to be there, and I've repeatedly filed privacy complaints to have it removed, but each time the complaints are rejected. What am I missing?

Background: this is a video of an informal interview that I did at a technical conference a few years ago. Parts of the conference were being live streamed and my understanding was that that's what we were doing. Nobody told me that the interview would be posted to YouTube to be permanently on display to anyone who googles my name, I never agreed to that and never would have.

On the YouTube Privacy Guidelines page, under "How does YouTube determine if content should be removed for a privacy violation?", it says:
"For content to be considered for removal, an individual must be uniquely identifiable by image, voice, full name, Social Security number, bank account number or contact information (e.g. home address, email address)."
In this case, my image is present, my voice is present, my full name is given in the video and is included in the title of the video, so it doesn't really get any more personally identifiable. And yet despite this, three times now I've filed privacy complaints to have the video removed and each time YouTube's response is:
We are unable to identify a violation of our Privacy Guidelines in the content you reported. For more information regarding our Privacy Guidelines, please visit: http://youtube.com/t/privacy_guidelines [i.e., the page I started from]
The privacy complaint form I'm filling out is pretty simple and I don't know what I could do differently here. It asks for my name, the URL of the video and the channel, what information is involved (I'm checking the boxes for my image, my full legal name, and my voice), and where the information appears (this is a radio button so I can't select both "Within the title or video description" and "Within the video", I've actually tried it both ways to no effect). It asks where in the video the content appears, I'm in there in several spots and I've tried listing a single time or a range of times, again to no effect.

I have contacted the channel where the video is posted, that was actually my first step, but they have not acknowledged my messages at all.

I no longer work for the company I was representing in the video and really have no wish to be associated with them in any way, and I never gave anyone permission to put the video online, much less with my full legal name in the title and description. But apparently the video is going to be available forever despite my concerns because neither the channel nor YouTube believe there's any privacy violation happening here. This is really frustrating and upsetting to me.

Has anyone here filed a successful privacy complaint to have a YouTube video removed? What am I doing wrong? Does anyone know of any way to escalate this kind of complaint to a real person, or another route through which I might address this? Alternatively, am I off base in believing that this is a violation of my privacy and that I have a right to request that it be removed?
posted by Two unicycles and some duct tape to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)
 
How does YouTube determine if content should be removed for a privacy violation?
For content to be considered for removal, an individual must be uniquely identifiable by image, voice, full name, Social Security number, bank account number or contact information (e.g. home address, email address). Examples that would not violate our privacy guidelines include gamer tags, avatar names, and address information in which the individual is not named. We also take public interest, newsworthiness, and consent into account when determining if content should be removed for a privacy violation. YouTube reserves the right to make the final determination of whether a violation of its privacy guidelines has occurred.


They don't quite say that an individual being uniquely identifiable means that the content will be considered a privacy violation and removed, just that an individual being uniquely identifiable just gets the content to the point of being considered for removal, and they make the final call.

I'm guessing that the content you are included in is considered to be newsworthy or of public interest.
posted by bunderful at 2:59 PM on September 3, 2016


I have a hunch that YouTube is stonewalling you on this because you consented to being filmed, even though you did not consent to this specifically. I'm sorry this is happening, I know first-hand how frustrating this sort of thing can be.

This information might be useful to you.

Can you involve your former employer? Can you reach out to whatever organization hosted the conference?
posted by sevensnowflakes at 3:00 PM on September 3, 2016 [1 favorite]


Reading this it sounds like your situation is pretty similar to someone being filmed in public for a documentary, which would be legal, so I think that's why you're not getting any traction on asking YouTube to take it down. Have you tried asking the creators of the video directly to do it just as a favor to you?
posted by MsMolly at 3:01 PM on September 3, 2016 [2 favorites]


Or would it be an acceptable compromise if they removed your name from the video and metadata? If the video is getting a lot of traffic you might have better luck with that.
posted by bunderful at 3:03 PM on September 3, 2016 [1 favorite]


I would call an IP lawyer for a free consult, not based on privacy but a lack of (model, video, photo) release agreement, especially if there's a commercial angle to any part of it (promotional purpose, ads on the video, et al).
posted by rhizome at 3:37 PM on September 3, 2016 [7 favorites]


Yeah, I think you're going to either appeal to whoever posted the video or start involving a lawyer to solve this one, and even then I wouldn't expect success. Youtube isn't privy to the nature of the agreement you had with whoever posted the video, and aren't really under any obligation to help you unless a law is being violated.
posted by Aleyn at 12:49 AM on September 4, 2016


I'm not your lawyer. I am probably not licensed in your jurisdiction. Several people have suggested that you consult with a lawyer who is licensed in your jurisdiction, and I would repeat that advice.

Alternatively, am I off base in believing that this is a violation of my privacy and that I have a right to request that it be removed?

Without seeing the video or knowing more details, we (Internet strangers) can't say. But you might think about the situation from YouTube's perspective.

On one hand, if you are talking about a one-off video uploaded by an otherwise anonymous account that was never again used, then maybe YouTube should exercise its privacy-policy discretion liberally because it would be very difficult and costly for someone featured in that video (eg, you) to track down the uploader and negotiate with, or enforce your rights against, him or her.

On the other hand, if you are talking about one video in a stream of 200 that have been uploaded by a readily identifiable person or entity—and if the video itself doesn't appear to be surreptitiously recorded or otherwise super-obviously sketchy—then from YouTube's perspective, maybe there is less need to get involved. It's not a dispute between two people who are total strangers apart from this single commonality on YouTube; rather, it's a dispute between two identifiable parties who agreed to create this video and can therefore resume their prior communications to argue over what should or shouldn't be done with it.
posted by cribcage at 8:42 AM on September 4, 2016


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