Compliance Management, Network Security, Privacy

Revenge porn images to be removed from Google Search results upon request

Google announced Friday that it will take steps to make “revenge porn” images inaccessible through its search engine.

In "coming weeks," the tech giant said that it will make a web form available for users to request that such images be removed.

“We've heard many troubling stories of ‘revenge porn' : an ex-partner seeking to publicly humiliate a person by posting private images of them, or hackers stealing and distributing images from victims' accounts,” Amit Singhal, SVP of Google Search, wrote in a company blog post.

While Google won't be able to remove such images from websites, it aims to help address the problem of revenge porn by impacting their visibility via Search, Singhal explained. The policy is similar to Google's protocol for removing sensitive data, like bank account numbers, from Search results, he said.

Google joins companies, like Twitter and Facebook, which updated their policies to discourage revenge porn harassment.

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