White House Drops YouTube Over Privacy Concerns

How much is your privacy worth? We may not think about it most of the time, but while YouTube is free to watch, it’s not cost-free to deliver, and the price we’re paying is in personal information.

Now, CNet reports that as a result of privacy complaints the White House has stopped using YouTube’s video player for the President’s Weekly Addresses. Interestingly, it is also now available on Vimeo in HD:

2/28/09: Your Weekly Address from White House on Vimeo.

The fact that the Obama administration would rather spend taxpayer money than allow YouTube to deliver the video for free to a potentially far larger audience on the YouTube portal should stand as a reminder that while services like YouTube may seem free, we pay a hidden cost every time we allow ourselves to be tracked online.