Francois Lenoir/Reuters
Google helped Houston law enforcement catch a man in possession of child pornography. When John Henry Skillern, 41, sent pornographic images of children through his Gmail account, each of which had a unique digital footprint. They triggered an automatic alert in Google, enabling the company to notify the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). While the automated detection system had a positive outcome in this case, it raises concern about what other crimes or information Google may be scanning our Gmail accounts to find. However, Google assures that its scanning system do not detect “other email content that could be associated with criminal activity (for example using email to plot a burglary)." You can continue planning that jewel heist over gchat.