[url]http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2461971,00.asp[/url]
[QUOTE]A 41-year-old Houston man was arrested last week after a Google email scan uncovered child pornography.
John Henry Skillern (pictured) was sending explicit images of a young girl when the search giant intercepted them and handed them over to local police, according to Houston station KHOU 11 News.
After obtaining a search warrant, police found more child porn stored on Skillern's mobile phone and tablet, as well as text messages and emails discussing his interest in children, KHOU 11 News said. He has been charged with one count of possession of child pornography and one count of promotion of child pornography; he is being held on a $200,000 bond.[/QUOTE]
Interesting to know how the scan actually works
[QUOTE=Complifused;45591588]Interesting to know how the scan actually works[/QUOTE]
Yes, and now so do all the people that are currently jumping ship to more secured methods to continue their hobby.
Frankly the idea of a mail provider scanning mail for illegal content and then informing the police about it is [I]really[/I] creepy.
No matter what that content is.
Imagine how many people read your emails without your knowledge...
I agree with Google doing this, alot of people are attacking google for scanning peoples emails but they have been doing it for years.
If they have the algorithm to detect CP why not use it?
[QUOTE=Complifused;45591588]Interesting to know how the scan actually works[/QUOTE]
Probably the same way google's reverse image search works. Scans a picture, checks for similar pictures in a database, connects them when they're the same.
Probably works the same reverse image search works?
[QUOTE=Pnukup;45591665]Imagine how many people read your emails without your knowledge...[/QUOTE]
I once had some random IP address from China reading my e-mail, I quickly changed my passwords, and hope it never happens again. I'm still wondering how the hell they got access to begin with.
Wasn't there already a thread for this?
[QUOTE=Pnukup;45591665]Imagine how many people read your emails without your knowledge...[/QUOTE]
It's all just funny shit I send to my dad and applications.
[QUOTE=DrTaxi;45591632]Frankly the idea of a mail provider scanning mail for illegal content and then informing the police about it is [I]really[/I] creepy.
No matter what that content is.[/QUOTE]
It just scans the emails for known CP hashes, and if it matches then they double check it before notifying police.
You don't have to use Gmail if you don't want to.
Well, goggle is in for a surprise with my emails.
I hate stuff like this because of how torn it makes me feel.
On the one hand it's absolutely fantastic that they caught someone like him but on the other hand.. what else has gmail/google "scanned" and possibly logged about you?
[QUOTE=PopSkimo;45591797]I hate stuff like this because of how torn it makes me feel.
On the one hand it's absolutely fantastic that they caught someone like him but on the other hand.. what else has gmail/google "scanned" and possibly logged about you?[/QUOTE]
an excellent recipe for french onion soup?
[QUOTE=Complifused;45591588]Interesting to know how the scan actually works[/QUOTE]
There are probably a few ways, but what comes to mind is that they were given access to the hashes of known illicit files from a law enforcement database, and then run the same hashing algorithm on files sent as attachments through GMail and compare the results. If the hashes match, you've probably found a duplicate of a child pornography image and you can investigate further. It's not perfect, altering a file slightly would cause it to produce a different hash, but Google doesn't have to store any child porn on their servers and it's relatively light on computing power compared to other methods.
Of course, google's got some brilliant engineers on their team so I wouldn't be surprised if they had come up with a superior and wildly different way to go about it, but that's my best guess.
What's up with pedophiles, rapists, murderers, and stuff, almost always looking exactly like what they are? Like, I had a clear image in my head of what this dude looked like based solely on the headline and it was pretty much exactly what I was imagining.
[QUOTE=Xyrec;45591691]I once had some random IP address from China reading my e-mail, I quickly changed my passwords, and hope it never happens again. I'm still wondering how the hell they got access to begin with.[/QUOTE]
I had someone from Mexico logging into my email account a few weeks ago. I've no idea how they got in either. Hadn't even logged into that email account for months.
[QUOTE=Pnukup;45591665]Imagine how many people read your emails without your knowledge...[/QUOTE]
Unless it's detected as something super illegal or your account got compromised, none?
Considering that there are well over a hundred billion emails sent per day and I presume you are not trying to get CP over email, the chances of a random message directed toward you that a human reads which contains actual personal information beyond a username or first/last name is incredibly slim. About 1 in a few billion, I think.
[QUOTE=Coffee;45591821]an excellent recipe for french onion soup?[/QUOTE]
All my university documents, projects and messages to colleagues. I don't like that tbh, i don't want some random google employee knowing everything about me.
[QUOTE=MatheusMCardoso;45591925]All my university documents, projects and messages to colleagues. I don't like that tbh, i don't want some random google employee knowing everything about me.[/QUOTE]
Then use Outlook or whatever MS mail is now called. (dont)
[QUOTE=MatheusMCardoso;45591925]All my university documents, projects and messages to colleagues. I don't like that tbh, i don't want some random google employee knowing everything about me.[/QUOTE]
seriously, they dont
even if they cared, there's no way for them to access it without getting fired
Plus, why do people think that Google would want to read your private messages? It's not like they are happily browsing through your vacation photos or looking at the dirty pictures you send to the girl you like. Most of the things they do with emails are autonomous systems that do not require human interaction. Only if someone is suspicious, it might be handled by a person. You can't expect Google to run no security at all, their servers will get used for everything they forbid.
[QUOTE=Xyrec;45591691]I once had some random IP address from China reading my e-mail, I quickly changed my passwords, and hope it never happens again. I'm still wondering how the hell they got access to begin with.[/QUOTE]
I got a text in January saying that some suspicious activity was spotted by Google. I changed my password, thought it was really weird. I think I heard somebody complain about the same thing happening (the location was the same)
Read your post just now, and decided to google the date I got the text, turns out that day some news were published about a phishing scheme.
So am I a dumbass? I mean the new password did work, so it's not like the website just "stole" the data I entered. Also if it's a phishing scheme, then how did I get a text on my cellphone (of course it's possible to find a cellphone number, but it was a big scheme, I doubt the smartasses were manually searching for my phonenumber).
It's just too weird, the date being the same and all
[QUOTE=Apollo;45591889]What's up with pedophiles, rapists, murderers, and stuff, almost always looking exactly like what they are? Like, I had a clear image in my head of what this dude looked like based solely on the headline and it was pretty much exactly what I was imagining.[/QUOTE]
Gonna be more than just a little bit of confirmation bias involved there, but I get where you're coming from in general
If you use someone else's service, and Google is someone else, then why would you think your communications are secret? If it's that important you'd encrypt it before uploading at least. I mean you could send a Photoshop file with two layers, including a top layer of puppies and unicorns, so this hashing thing won't work. Then the perv you're sending it to just removes the layer and presto!
[QUOTE=Coffee;45591821]an excellent recipe for french onion soup?[/QUOTE]
Can I have that recipe? I really like french onion soup.
I wonder if this was the same system mentioned a while ago that Google were assisting on, basically an encrypted database of "known" images that can be checked against. Kind of (or maybe exactly like?) file hashing.
Practices like this could soooo easily be converted to turning people in to the police for organizing protests, engaging in anti-government rhetoric, talking to the press, using drugs, owning guns, modifying cars, pretty much anything, really. The pedophile thing is just a low-hanging fruit. Better not do anything remotely questionable on Gmail, because sooner or later Google is going to expand the list of things they'll rat you out for.
[QUOTE=Apollo;45591889]What's up with pedophiles, rapists, murderers, and stuff, almost always looking exactly like what they are? Like, I had a clear image in my head of what this dude looked like based solely on the headline and it was pretty much exactly what I was imagining.[/QUOTE]
As someone whose mother has worked in probation for violent and dangerous criminals, I can say that only some of them look like that. In fact, a lot of the more prolific, manipulative and cruel ones are generally attractive twenty- or thirty-somethings with a kind smile and a well-kept hairdo. The paedophiles who look like paedophiles tend to be the less active ones, for obvious reasons.
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