The internet giant Google has been told to hand over the personal information of every person who has ever watched a video on YouTube as part of a billion-dollar court case in the US.
A judge in New York has ordered Google, which owns the YouTube website, to pass on the details of more than 100 million people to Viacom, the US broadcasting company that owns the MTV and Nickelodeon channels.
The data will include unique internet addresses, email accounts and the history of every video watched on the website, giving Viacom's experts the ability to conduct a detailed examination of the viewing habits of millions of people around the world.
In a statement on Thursday, Google said it would lobby for the data it provides to be scrubbed clean of personal information.