A Houston man has been arrested after Google sent a tip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children saying the man had explicit images of a child in his email, according to Houston police. The man was a registered sex offender, convicted of sexually assaulting a child in 1994, reports Tim Wetzel at KHOU Channel 11 News in Houston. "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 Channel 11. After Google reportedly tipped off the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the Center alerted police, which used the information to get a warrant.
Don't get me wrong—I'm happy this guy was caught—but I'm concerned about the precedent this sets. I would rather our governing agencies uses these algorithms to vet hateful messages and explicit images instead of private corporations like Google. The algorithms will become more advanced and, in not-so-distant future, there is less need for profiling as everything is automated. Form your own half-full or half-empty opinion after reading the article here.
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