Google spotted explicit images of a child in a man's email and tipped off the authorities

According to Houston police, a man has been arrested after Google sent a tip off to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children saying the man had explicit images of a child in his email.

The man was a registered sex offender, convicted of sexually assaulting a child in 1994. “He was keeping it inside of his email. I can’t see that information, I can’t see that photo, but Google can,” Detective David Nettles of the Houston Metro Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce said.

The police was alerted after Google reportedly tipped off the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. A warrant was issued as soon as the news had emerged. All devices belonging to the man where searched and they revealed more suspicious images and text messages. Police arrested him and he’s being held on a $US200,000 bond.

On one hand, most people would certainly applaud the use of technology to scan email in a case like this. On the other, debate rages about how much privacy users can expect when using Google’s services like email. In a word: none.

A year ago, in a court brief, Google said as much. Then, in April, after a class-action case against Google for email scanning fell apart, Google updated its terms of service to warn people that it was automatically analyzing emails.

Considering Google has been working to fight online child sexual abuse since 2006, it stands to reason the company would scan emails looking for those sorts of images.  Google said: 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.

By Adriana Rueda

Source: Sky News

Image: Google