Privacy is always important, but there are certain websites you’d rather people were less aware you visited than others.
It’s worrying then that Pornhub has just been ordered to hand over the personal details of some users.
The order, handed down by a federal court in California, has demanded the names, email address, IP addresses and other identifying information of certain users.
Unless you’ve been up to no good online, however, your information should be safe from exposure.
That’s because the court order only covers users who have been found to have uploaded pirated videos.
The court approved the request for a DMCA subpoena which was filed by the Seychelles-based adult company, Foshan Ltd.
The company, known for the adult film brand “Wankz”, sought the ruling in a bid to discover who was responsible for uploading more than 1,000 illegal copies of its videos.
As Pornhub allows users to upload their own videos, this is far from the first time the company has faced copyright infringement claims.
“We take claims of copyrighting infringement seriously,” an official Pornhub spokesperson has said, adding that infringements to these rules will be severely punished.
“Responses may include removing, blocking or disabling access to material claimed to be the subject of infringing activity, terminating the user’s access to PornHub, or all of the foregoing.”
Unless Pornhub decides to appeal, the world’s most popular adult website has until May 1 to hand over the requested information.
The information requested is quite wide-arching too, will everything the company holds on its users up for grabs.
This includes name, email address, IP address, physical address, telephone number.
Perhaps most worryingly, however, it also includes posting and user history, yep, the smutty videos that users’ have watched.
It is believed this is the first time a rights holder as been issued a DMCA subpoena to discover information about Pornhub users.
It’s not just illegal copies of adult videos that have found their way up on to the porn site.
Last month it emerged that the adult-only website was being used to host Hollywood movies that could then be illegally streamed for free.
Uploaders were reportedly making use of Pornhub’s platform as it’s copyright checks on uploaded content were more relaxed than those of general purpose video hosting sites such as YouTube.
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