Google tips police to suspicious photos hidden inside a sex offender’s Gmail inbox

[Guest James Gray]

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John Henry Skillern is a registered sex offender that spent 19 years in prison for sexually assaulting a child and now, thanks to Google, is back behind bars. After Google found suspicious photos in Skillern’s Gmail inbox they tipped off the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children who in turn notified Houston police.

 

 

Once the police had a warrant they were able to uncover more incriminating evidence and arrest him. “He was trying to get around getting caught, he was trying to keep it inside his email”, Detective David Nettles of the Houston Metro Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce told the news, “I can’t see that information, I can’t see that photo, but Google can.”

 

While there is no doubt that the world is a better place with Skillern behind bars, some may question the privacy implications (something Google has come under fire for in the past). As it stands, Skillern had left no trace of evidence anywhere else on the internet, and no organization was investigating him. The sole responsibility for his arrest falls on Google, who have been actively fighting online child sexual abuse since 2006.

 

The Google Mail terms of service make it clear that all emails are automatically analyzed and images scanned for suspicious material. Jacquelline Fuller, director of Google Giving, has gone on record saying,

 

In 2011, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s (NCMEC’s) Cybertipline Child Victim Identification Program reviewed 17.3 million images and videos of suspected child sexual abuse. …

 

Since 2008, we’ve used ‘hashing’ technology to tag known child sexual abuse images, allowing us to identify duplicate images which may exist elsewhere. …

 

We’re in the business of making information widely available, but there’s certain ‘information’ that should never be created or found. We can do a lot to ensure it’s not available online—and that when people try to share this disgusting content they are caught and prosecuted.

 

While in many states Google is required to report incidents of child sexual abuse and pornography, they are under no obligation to actively look for it. Are Google’s vigilante tactics an example of the good technology can do, or are we headed towards an Orwellian nightmare where every aspect of our lives are under surveillance? Let us know what you think in the comments.

 

Source: Business Insider

 

 

Come comment on this article: Google tips police to suspicious photos hidden inside a sex offender’s Gmail inbox

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