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Discussion » Questions » Computers and the Internet » Does it bother you that Google scans your email for illegal content?
Just Asking

Does it bother you that Google scans your email for illegal content?

https://gigaom.com/2014/08/04/google-catches-pedophile-through-his-gmail-raising-questions-about-scope-of-scanning/

“Sadly all Internet companies have to deal with child sexual abuse.  It’s why Google actively removes illegal imagery from our services — including search and Gmail — and immediately reports abuse to NCMEC.  This evidence is regularly used to convict criminals.  Each child sexual abuse image is given a unique digital fingerprint which enables our systems to identify those pictures, including in Gmail.  It is important to remember that we only use this technology to identify child sexual abuse imagery, not other email content that could be associated with criminal activity (for example using email to plot a burglary).”

Posted - March 28, 2017
Tags : None

Responses


  • Not the way they claim to do it.   Supposedly how it works is they tag images with an identifier and if one of those images crosses their servers they get a notification that it has been sent.

      March 28, 2017 11:16 AM MDT
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  • 19937
    Not if that is the only reason it's being used.  Also, I take it that applies to their gmail and not all email accounts with other providers.
      March 28, 2017 1:11 PM MDT
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  • 22891
    i didnt know they did that but im not doing anything illegal anyways so it dont bother me
      March 28, 2017 2:55 PM MDT
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  • Not for a moment. More power to them. 
      March 28, 2017 3:05 PM MDT
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  • Not at all. I don't do anything online that would trigger suspicion.
    I'm not so clueless as to think the web is not being monitored by covert means. Edward Snowden enlightened us all on that. 
      March 28, 2017 6:58 PM MDT
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  • Hi Just Asking,
    When I put something into e-mail, I always assume anyone can see it.
    If something needs to be private, I would use snail mail.

    So that kind of scanning is more than okay with me.
      March 28, 2017 6:58 PM MDT
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  • 7683
    Hi JA, 

    http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/yahoo-created-software-to-scan-store-all-e-mail-for-government-w443329
    This link is interesting too....I'm not worried about google scanning illegal content because I don't indulge in anything illegal...;)) in fact, I stay away from inappropriate things anywhere..!
    I'm more bothered about credit card information going into wrong hands...!
      March 28, 2017 7:28 PM MDT
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  • I agree with ya.
      March 28, 2017 7:54 PM MDT
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  • Remember to lock your dog in the bedroom first if you don't want him shot.
      March 28, 2017 8:15 PM MDT
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  • Actually it's policy and protocol for some agencies.

    The saddest and most disgusting is when it's a false flag from some a-hole neighbor calling in a fake grow house out of spite and the SWATs or DEA bust in shoots dog, traumatizes family.  Then the people are left with little more than an " Oh well.  we got a tip you were running an evil pot operation"
    Happens more often than people realize or want to admit.
      March 28, 2017 8:53 PM MDT
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  • 3191
    "Each child sexual abuse image is given a unique digital fingerprint..."

    Who is giving the images this fingerprint?
      March 28, 2017 7:54 PM MDT
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  • 7939
    Google can recognize images. I find it doubtful they're allowing them to be distributed, but rather, have marked known images in their system, so that when their image search pops up with a match, they know it's child pornography. That's my guess, anyway. Google tech is smart. You can reverse image search virtually anything and it'll guess what the image is. It recognizes all kinds of random objects and specific people.
      March 28, 2017 8:46 PM MDT
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  • 3191
    Volunteers must verify it as child porn, after which it can be recognized by the scans.  

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/10123410/There-are-some-things-no-one-should-be-able-to-Google.html

    https://www.iwf.org.uk/ This post was edited by Bozette at March 28, 2017 10:06 PM MDT
      March 28, 2017 9:33 PM MDT
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  • That is the kicker. 
      March 28, 2017 8:16 PM MDT
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  • 7795
    I got nothing to hide except all that porn I've been sending to WingedWonder.  
      March 28, 2017 8:03 PM MDT
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  • 7795
    Keep it coming, but encrypt that stuff from now on. LOL This post was edited by Zack at March 28, 2017 8:09 PM MDT
      March 28, 2017 8:07 PM MDT
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  • 3719
    The major IT providers are currently under scrutiny by the a UK Parliamentary Committee to establish why they allow so much unsavoury material through, and what they intend to do about it, but it's important to realise paedophilic images are by no means the only problem. It's one aspect of a massive criminal use of the Internet generally. Although cruelty to children is nasty and needs stamping out, financial and terrorist crimes are the primary wrongs numerically - anyway, terrorists do not care when their victims include children.

    And what of "cyber bullying" - child abuse by other children?

    As for what the likes of Google and Facebook can do, the sheer volume of Internet traffic world-wide has probably overwhelmed them. They seem to be trying, and indeed are forever closing down hundreds of illegal posts etc, but I fear the grim reality is that the Internet is beyond control in any but hardline dictatorships. And even such governments find it hard to control everything without basically closing their own countries down.  

    And to think Tim Berners-Lee invented the Internet concept as a genuine, serious information-exchange service to help international scientific research such as at CERN. 
      April 1, 2017 4:48 PM MDT
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