Jump to content
The Official Site of the Vancouver Canucks
Enter Search Term. Use arrows to navigate between autocomplete results. If no results appear, use Enter to do a full site search.
Forum Closure ×
Canucks Community
Forum Closure

Paedophile snared as Google scans Gmail for images of child abuse

key2thecup

By key2thecup
in Off-Topic General

Recommended Posts

key2thecup Canucks Regular

key2thecup

Posted
Posted

I'm glad the pedo got caught, but this sets a dangerous and scary precedence.

Paedophile snared as Google scans Gmail for images of child abuse Hundreds of millions of email accounts are now being routinely scanned for illegal images, thanks to spophisicated new Google software

google-logo1.jpg

Technology giant Google has developed state of the art software which proactively scours hundreds of millions of email accounts for images of child abuse.

The breakthrough means paedophiles around the world will no longer be able to store and send vile images via email without the risk of their crimes becoming known to the authorities.

Details of the software emerged after a 41-year-old convicted sex offender was arrested in Texas for possession of child abuse images.

Police in the United States revealed that Google’s sophisticated search system had identified suspect material in an email sent by a man in Houston.

Child protection experts were automatically tipped off and were then able to alert the police, who swooped after requesting the user’s personal information from Google.

It is hoped the software will play a significant role in the ongoing fight against paedophiles who believe they can use the Internet to operate in the shadows and avoid detection.

Google, which has sometimes faced criticism for not doing enough to tackle paedophilia online, has been developing highly specialised software for a number of years.

In 2008 it rolled out new technology that helped the authorities trace those who were using its search engine to look for illegal images.

But while the company refused to comment on this latest case, the arrest in Texas confirms that the software is now being applied to scan the Google’s hugely popular email service

Google’s Gmail is the world’s largest free web-based email service with more than 425 million users worldwide.

It is understood that the software works by comparing images held in users’ accounts against a vast database of child abuse images which have been collated by child protection agencies around the world.

Each one of the images is given a unique fingerprint, known as a hash, which is then used to compare with those held in the database.

The system operates automatically and nobody working for Google is able to see any of the images being examined.

If a match with one of the images on the database is found a red flag is raised and one of the child protection agencies such as the UK’s Internet Watch Foundation or the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children in the US is alerted.

Trained specialists at the organisations then examine the image and decide whether to alert the police.

While the technology will be seen as a huge boost to the fight against child abuse and exploitation, the ability of Google to look into people’s personal email accounts has raised questions for privacy campaigners.

Earlier in the year Google confirmed that email accounts were being scanned for content to provide "personally relevant" adverts to users.

Last month the National Crime Agency (NCA) announced that more than 600 suspected paedophiles including doctors, teachers and care workers had been arrested in a major crackdown on the trade in images of abuse.

While the NCA refused to discuss tactics it is thought experts had made a breakthrough in cracking the so-called ‘dark web’, a part of the Internet which has been notoriously difficult to monitor and police.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/11012008/Paedophile-snared-as-Google-scans-Gmail-for-images-of-child-abuse.html?fb

Link to comment
Share on other sites
PhillipBlunt Canucks Hall-of-Famer

PhillipBlunt

Posted
Posted

Definitely mixed feelings here. My absolute hatred for pedophiles makes me want to be okay with this.

However, it would seem like a great way for Google to roll out and justify email scanning for any content deemed offensive.

Child pornography is the most offensive content on earth. I will hold on that belief until my body goes gray. This Google invasion of privacy will not deter pedophiles from deferring to different media sharing techniques though.

There is truly only one deterrent for pedophilia.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
elvis15 Canucks Hall-of-Famer

elvis15

Posted
Posted

Great that they can catch people like this (although they've just announced to any others that could potentially get caught by this they should just avoid attachments in Gmail if they don't want to get caught) but it does beg the question about what else are they scanning for and where does it get alerted to? Does the NSA get involved somewhere along the line?

It's great that the info isn't visible to Google employees, but it's not them I'd be as worried about seeing my personal emails (nothing illegal there, before anyone asks) for profiling purposes at the very least.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Buddhas Hand Canucks First-Line

Buddhas Hand

Posted
Posted

Agreed... IMO there shouldn't be anything to be worried about unless you have something to hide because of criminal reasons. In that case I hope you get caught.

Totally.

Anyone stupid enough to put stuff out there they do not want others to know about deserve to be caught.

A friend was telling me about some people who posted footage of themselves drink driving on face-book , the police saw it and busted them , they actually asked the police how they knew about what they had done.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
PhillipBlunt Canucks Hall-of-Famer

PhillipBlunt

Posted
Posted

Exactly elvis15. Thank you.

Why publicize using Google to snare pedophiles? All they are doing is allowing all of those disgusting beings the chance to sign up for AOL or Hotmail now.

If this whole measure was solely implemented with the intent on catching pedophiles, why publicize it? Why give them a chance to evade capture?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Dral Canucks Star

Dral

Posted
Posted

Nobody at Google is actually looking at personal your pictures one by one unless they meet the criteria of illicit material. It's all computers and it's done "extremely" fast.

how do you know? And even if they aren't... they COULD...

Yeah it's good they caught this guy, but like a lot of people I have mixed feelings. Where will google draw the line ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Buddhas Hand Canucks First-Line

Buddhas Hand

Posted
Posted

Exactly elvis15. Thank you.

Why publicize using Google to snare pedophiles? All they are doing is allowing all of those disgusting beings the chance to sign up for AOL or Hotmail now.

If this whole measure was solely implemented with the intent on catching pedophiles, why publicize it? Why give them a chance to evade capture?

Surely AOL and Hotmail can use the same software ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
elvis15 Canucks Hall-of-Famer

elvis15

Posted
Posted

Exactly elvis15. Thank you.

Why publicize using Google to snare pedophiles? All they are doing is allowing all of those disgusting beings the chance to sign up for AOL or Hotmail now.

If this whole measure was solely implemented with the intent on catching pedophiles, why publicize it? Why give them a chance to evade capture?

Surely AOL and Hotmail can use the same software ?

Or more likely to not use email at all. It's not the smartest move ever and you can beet guys like black market arms dealers have moved beyond Gmail/AOL/Hotmail for their communications.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...