Compliance Management, Threat Management, Privacy

Google tips off Texas police, leading to arrest of sex offender

Google upheld its policy of monitoring user content for child sexual abuse this past week when it tipped Texas police off to a man who was receiving explicit images of an underaged girl.

John Henry Skillern is a registered sex offender who had already been convicted of sexually assaulting an eight-year-old boy in 1994, according to a local news station. A Houston detective told the station: “He was trying to get around getting caught; he was trying to keep it [the photo] inside his email. I can't see that information; I can't see that photo, but Google can.”

Through Google's tip, the police were able to obtain a search warrant and sift through his phone and tablet data.  They then found texts and emails that discussed his interest in children.

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