Google takes down sex offender by going through his personal e-mail

[Exterminator]

Content source

http://www.neowin.net/news/google-takes-down-sex-offender-by-going-through-his-personal-e-mail

Here’s some undoubtedly good news that might leave you with some mixed feelings nonetheless. The Houston police department has arrested a sex offender based on a tip received from Google.

The web search giant had reported to the police that the person was receiving illegal child pornography images in his inbox, which led to a search warrant being issued. The police later found a lot more images stored locally on the person’s computer.

Google, Microsoft and other companies as well as the FBI use automated image scanning to fight online child exploitation mainly by finding and punishing sites that deal with such content. However this was a bit different as Google was scanning images inside of e-mails for illicit content.

Of course this is undeniably good news and we’re very glad the police had the support of Google in finding and taking down this offender and others like him.

However, being reminded of how much power these companies and the government have to intrude into our personal lives does leave us with a sort of mixed bag of feelings.

Source: KHOU via: Engadget | View of Google HQ image via Shutterstock

 

[Prorootect]

I support Google here, finally for once!

 

[Petrovic]

Does Google have the right to tip off police if it sees that you have allegedly illegal content in your email?

This question will concern some after news emerged that a Houston man, John Henry Skillern, was arrested by police for possession of child pornography.

Police told KHOU-TV that Google has spotted three allegedly pornographic images of children in Skillern's email and had tipped off the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

"He was trying to get around getting caught, he was trying to keep it inside his email. I can't see that information, I can't see that photo, but Google can," Det. David Nettles told KHOU.

Skillern, 41, who works at Denny's and is a registered sex offender, was arrested after police obtained a warrant. Police say they found more evidence of child pornography on Skillern's devices.

I have contacted Google to ask whether the police's declaration of the company's involvement was accurate. Moreover, I asked whether this was part of standard operating policy.

Google has never made a secret of the fact that it scans email content. Its Terms of Service was updated in April to explain that the company's "automated systems analyze your content (including emails)."

While no one could be against protecting children against predators, those who already have concerns about privacy will wonder what other circumstances might cause Google to inform authorities of one kind or another.

Full Article

In March this year, the claim was rejected, and a month later Google terms of use have been changed-the Corporation has obtained the right to use any user information for any purpose.

Enjoy!​

 

[Exterminator]

Google defends scanning Gmail which helped track sex offender

Article source: http://www.neowin.net/news/google-defends-scanning-gmail-which-helped-track-sex-offender

Google has defended itself after helping authorities in arresting a sex offender by scanning his Gmail account, saying the nature of the illegal content warranted its automatic search.

It was reported yesterday that a 41-year-old restaurant worker from Houston was arrested after Google informed authorities at the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children of the presence of child pornography in the man's Gmail account.

Although the email scanning has helped authorities nab the suspect, internet rights activists have been critical of the company's email crawling practices and usually protest on social media. In order to clear its side of things Google has now issued a statement to AFP.

Google has explained that, like all internet companies, it is required to deal with child sexual abuse and have a system in place to identify such content. The Google representative reiterated that the company uses this technology only to identify child abuse and no other forms of criminal activity that may be taking place using its services is monitored. Microsoft also has a similar email scanning policy, which ignores crimes such as IP theft, since the recent backlash from the online community after the arrest of former employee and Windows 8 leaker Alex Kibkalo.

Back in November, Microsoft and Google had committed to developing mechanisms to curb the spread of child pornography and it is a positive outcome of such efforts that the culprit has been brought to justice.

Source: Yahoo News | Image via Google

 

[Oxygen]

This can be a good thing as well as a bad thing simply because a vpn, so lets say a innocent user gets hacked by a person on a vpn without logs and they hack the user and place bunch of child porn there, well this would seem unfair if a innocent user gets arrested because of the action that someone else did.


I don't like the fact that google has the right to view any messages at anytime no matter what you did it is still wrong.