Google Admits it Scans Gmail Accounts for Child Porn Content

A man was arrested last week for being in the possession of child pornography--but the circumstances that led to the arrest are a bit of a first. Apparently Houston police were alerted to John Henry Skillern's illegal activities by Google, of all things.

Google has acknowledged that this arrest was made possibly because the search giant scans images sent through Gmail accounts to see if they might contain child porn content; though there are some saying that this invasion of privacy--even for such a worthy cause--might not be a good thing. 

According to the Verge, cyber security expert John Hawes of Virus Bulletin is just one such person citing the example of Skillem's arrest as a potential slippery slope.

"There will of course be some who see it as yet another sign of how the twin Big Brothers of state agencies and corporate behemoths have nothing better to do than delve into the private lives of all and sundry, looking for dirt," Hawes stated. 

Skillern allegedly was using Google's ubiquitous email platform to disseminate images of child pornography, which all contain "a unique digital fingerprint," according to the Verge. Once these images were sent through Gmail, there were detected by automated processes set up by Google.

Skillerm's account was then flagged and his personal info was then handed over to the appropriate local authorities through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). 

Google is actually compelled to reveal such suspected illegal activities among its users if and when it becomes aware of such activities. The issue of contention here between Google and privacy advocates is the fact that Gmail is actively scanned for such content, which goes above and beyond the federal mandate to merely report any suspected child porn content if found. 

"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)," said Google's official statement on the matter. 

Yet scanning Gmail user content is a huge part of Google's business model and subsequent revenue stream. By doing so, "relevant ads" appear next to a user's Gmail dashboard. This scanning of content (for purpose of assigning relevant ads) is supposedly done anonymously, yet has been a point of controversy in the past for privacy advocates. 

While this scanning technology has led to arrests of suspected criminals like Skillern, it has its limitations. For instance, it can't detect images outside its user database--or new images. 

Google claims it doesn't divulge information on individual queries or cases, and they remain adamant that this system is only actively searching Gmail for child pornographic content.