Google's "Big Brother" behavior may have stirred plenty of controversy, but in this case it helped arrest a sex offender after finding child porn in his email.
More specifically, Houston police arrested a registered sex offender due to a tip from Google. During a scan, the search giant found three child abuse images in a user's email, and reported the matter to the police.
Google alerted the police after finding explicit child abuse images in the email of John Henry Skillern, 41, from Houston. Authorities arrested the man with charges of possession of child pornography and promotion of explicit content, the police told KHOU-TV.
"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 told KHOU-TV. "He was trying to get around getting caught, he was trying to keep it inside his email."
"I really don't know how they do their job. But I'm just glad they do it," he added.
"He looked like a nice, normal man," commented Skillern's neighbor, Yesenia Gonzales. Thank goodness for Google."
Google found the child porn images on Skillern's email by using its automatic image scanning technology, used specifically for the purpose of fighting child abuse.
"We're in the business of making information widely available, but there's certain 'information' that should never be created or found," Google explained in a blog post back in 2013. "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."
After receiving the tip from the search giant, Houston police obtained a search warrant and found more damning evidence on Skillern's phone, tablet, as well as some tech messages and emails hinting at his devious interest in children.
According to the police, Skillern worked as a cook at a restaurant in Pasadena, where he taped young children who came to the restaurant with their families. Skillern is now detailed on a $200,000 bond.
Google's surveillance practices have caused quite some uproar in regards to personal privacy. Back in April, the search giant updated its Terms of Service to explain more clearly how its automated content analysis works. That clarification came after Google faced a class-action lawsuit for email scanning.
For those unaware of Google's practices, the company analyzes Gmail content for both security reasons and targeted advertising. Such analyses occur when users share, receive, send, or store content on their Gmail accounts, such as Skillern did.
This latest occurrence again stirred waves regarding privacy, but at least this time Google's practices led to something good. A registered sex offender is now off the streets, and that's because Google scanned his email.
