A Texas man is under arrest after Internet giant Google tipped off authorities about explicit photographs of a child in the suspect’s email account. The arrest raises questions over the privacy of personal email and data and an internet companies’ role in policing the web.
A cyber tip from Google sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children led to a search warrant and subsequent arrest of a 41-year-old man now charged with possessing child pornography, according to a local television news report in Houston.
Google unmasks user emailing child abuse images
A Texas man is under arrest after Internet giant Google tipped off authorities about explicit photographs of a child in the suspect's email account. The arrest raises questions over the privacy of personal email and data and an internet companies' role in policing the web. A cyber-tip from Google sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children led to a search warrant and subsequent arrest of a 41-year-old man now charged with possessing child pornography, according to a local television news report in Houston.Questions about internet privacy erupted last year when Google responded to a class action lawsuit over its policy of scanning inboxes of some of its 400 million Gmail users worldwide. The firm has since moderated its terms of service to explain that inboxes are auto-scanned to tailor advertisement.
The Internet has been a tremendous force for good but like the physical world, there are dark corners on the web where criminal behavior exists.
According to David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer, the Internet giant has “built technology that trawls” the web for “images of child sex abuse,” removes them and, quote: “Reports their existence to the authorities.” CCTV America’s Ginger Vaughn reports.