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A dad took photos of his toddler for a doctor – Google flagged him as a criminal

nytimes.com

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Re: A dad took photos of his toddler for a doctor – Google flagged him as a criminal

#311

Post by bin_bash »

sandworm101 wrote: post #268
prepend wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose it’s defensive behavior. If they admit their mistake now then they could potentially be liable for the damages caused by their mistake years ago. Now any lawsuit would need to determine if there was an error and harm instead of just quantifying the harm. I’d like to contribute to a crowdsource fund to prosecute cases like this. When I was a kid the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund [0] was set up to pay for law…

7000$ is a pitance. Maybe this case is simple, but many will not be. Say they raid a house and confiscate a hard drive. Encrypted or not, that is going to be a huge thing. Arguments will be made about whether anything incriminating was stored on that drive. Just google the cost of a forensic expert witness. Both sides will need one. Such costs are actually why so many police agencies are backing off of CP investigati…

This is a civil case—not criminal. The father would be suing Google, not the government suing the father for a crime.

Re: A dad took photos of his toddler for a doctor – Google flagged him as a criminal

#312

Post by scarface74 »

diebeforei485 wrote: post #291
scarface74 wrote: post #12

I have a larger issue that no one addressed. There has to be some type of special software for the medical profession that allows you to take a picture on your phone that is not stored on your phone and that you send to the doctor.

> There has to be some type of special software for the medical profession that allows you to take a picture on your phone that is not stored on your phone and that you send to the doctor. No, you shouldn't have to use some special software to take a picture. Taking a photo with your phone's camera app should never trigger an account suspension.

I wouldn’t want private pictures I took just for a doctor to be synced with the cloud provider. It’s not like any of the cloud providers are HIPAA compliant.

Re: A dad took photos of his toddler for a doctor – Google flagged him as a criminal

#313

Post by ralusek »

mike_hock wrote: post #20
soraminazuki wrote: post #15

> A Google spokeswoman said the company stands by its decisions, even though law enforcement cleared the two men. Wow. Just wow. This is worse than the usual Google's automated screw-ups. In this case, Google was notified of the issue by the NYT. Yet they actively chose to continue to screw over their victims just because they can. > In a statement, Google said, “Child sexual abuse material is abhorrent and we’re com…

Welcome to fascism. A private company is the de-facto judge, jury and executioner because it owns half the infrastructure you live your life on.

That's not what fascism is. Fascism is hyper nationalism where everything is done in service of the nation state. Private entities only exist insofar as they are extensions of the state.

What you're describing here is more like a cyberpunk corporatocracy, where corporations hold so much power independent of the state, that they are able to exercise their own arbitrary decisions extrajudicially, while still maintaining so much power over people so as to completely control their lives.

In fact, here you can see that the person was exonerated by the state but punished by the corporation. In fascism, nothing supercedes the state.

Re: A dad took photos of his toddler for a doctor – Google flagged him as a criminal

#314

Post by Dylan16807 »

scarface74 wrote: post #233
wormer wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google isn't a government entity, it's a private company. Had there been more restrictions on what tech corporations (and corporations as a whole) could do, power could have been limited by the concentrated power of government. The issue here is that Google can dictate how we live our lives so heavily without any of its users having a say on how Google and its services should be run. The promotion of Laissez-faire ca…

So what would you like The government to “prevent” Google from doing in this case?

One option is that companies with sufficiently widespread services can't close your account or block you without due process. And restrict the ability of a ban to spread between services of such a company.

Re: A dad took photos of his toddler for a doctor – Google flagged him as a criminal

#315

Post by jongjong »

elif wrote: post #276

From my travels, my impression has been that America in particular treats child nudity as completely, unexceptionally obscene, beyond even adult nudity. Compared to a beach in Europe, where nearly half of children under 2 run naked, there seems to be no grey area or minimum acceptability in the US. It makes me wonder if our hypersexualized treatment of child nudity /actively contributes/ to the sexualization of child…

Haha yeah, in Europe there are often naked children running around at the beach. In Germany, there are places (especially lakes) where everyone is walking around, swimming and sunbathing naked - Sometimes the whole family. For me it was quite a shock initially but now I think it's fine.

Re: A dad took photos of his toddler for a doctor – Google flagged him as a criminal

#316

Post by isodev »

Banana699 wrote: post #299
isodev wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With the flick of a switch, they can deploy this technology to a global scale and way beyond protecting children. Imagine the feature propagating to their Chrome browser or their smart speakers "listening in" on what's happening in your home to "prevent" crimes by sending the cops whenever you raise your voice or say "the wrong things." This kind of power should not be in the hands of a single company. Edit: I recent…

>I recently read this book called "The Every" Reminds me of another "Social Media Corp Gone Bizarrely Crazy" plot that I read recently, The This , by Adam Roberts. You won't anticipate how Crazy the social corp in question goes till you're halfway.

I’m looking forward to reading it!

Re: A dad took photos of his toddler for a doctor – Google flagged him as a criminal

#317

Post by kiawe_fire »

mindslight wrote: post #225
prox wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah also think the word/concept fascism doesn’t fit here. While it is obviously oppressive or unjust, it is a company, so what would be a better fit?

At least to me, it seems quite appropriate to characterize the autocratic merging of government and corporate power as "fascism". Yes, it's missing some specific trappings of the original fascists, but definitions adapt and widen over time. In fascism 1.0, singular authority vested with the head of government who then subjugated every other institution under the government. In fascism 2.0, power consolidates from the…

Moreover, there is evidence that Google (along with Twitter and Facebook) frequently take actions to suppress opposing views on behalf of, and in collusion with, one side of the US government, including removal of information from one side and amplification of misinformation from the other.

In some cases, it conforms more to classical fascism than many realize.

That said, in this particular case, I’m still not sure it applies.

When it comes to stopping the distribution of child abuse material, there’s no reason to believe that anyone’s acting in bad faith. We can certainly see where they have everything needed to do so (access to people’s personal data, ability to mobilize law enforcement, and a relationship with government that is amenable to suppressing criticism as “dangerous”).

But in this specific case and others like it, we actually see that law enforcement did their job - they did not overreact, they investigated as appropriate, and nobody was charged.

Google continuing to be a dick about it and holding someone’s account hostage isn’t exactly fascism yet, but it is a great demonstration to people how easily big tech can become weapons of fascism, and why it’s important to opt out of centralized big tech (while they still have the chance), to discourage public/private collusion, and reason to support efforts to keep their powers in check, the same as they would any government.

Re: A dad took photos of his toddler for a doctor – Google flagged him as a criminal

#318

Post by nmz »

mulmen wrote: post #41
peoplefromibiza wrote: post #16

controversial opinion: as much as everybody knows that China isn't exactly championing the western way of life and western democratic standards, I keep my private files in a Chinese cloud (backups are kept private in a NAS in my house). Why? Because they are not in contact with our authorities and, frankly, the chances my private files will be of any interest for Chinese authorities are close to zero. Not that I have…

You are very naïve. In a recent comment thread I noted that my father’s generation went from fighting a bitter war with Vietnam to Apple building MacBooks there. My grandfather landed on D-Day and drove Volkswagen Beetles for most of his life. None of us know what will happen in the future. China could become a close ally. They’re already an existential economic partner. The only path to real privacy is personal sove…

> If you don’t control the data it is public. Period.

Funny, censorship (which this case somewhat is) is about making things not public. Though I somewhat agree.

Re: A dad took photos of his toddler for a doctor – Google flagged him as a criminal

#319

Post by dennis_jeeves1 »

nullc wrote: post #83

> “I decided it was probably not worth $7,000,” he said. lol. Missing 4 zeros there. Part of the reason for the brazen actions of companies like Google is that their substantial financial means and legal department sizes grant them a substantial degree of immunity to judicial review.

>lol. Missing 4 zeros there.

Also some execs behind bars won't be a bad idea. Granted that mistakes do happen, but when they don't resolve it in a timely manner, punishment is fair.

Addendum : I don't know if companies have a govt imposed rule to report porn, in that case I'd say the root cause is the govt, not the company. Of course if the root cause is govt, and even more root cause is people themselves. People collectively generally get the govt they deserve...

Re: A dad took photos of his toddler for a doctor – Google flagged him as a criminal

#320

Post by dennis_jeeves1 »

MerelyMortal wrote: post #199
734129837261 wrote: post #160

Quoted post unavailable.

Just don't make knives. Period. The reasoning doesn't matter. The innocent tool that you use for cooking could be stolen, could be lost, could end up donated to a thrift store where anyone could buy or shoplift it, and the knife could end up in the hands of a serial killer. Your intent doesn't make it right. And you have to make sure a criminal can never get their hands on one. What's next, actual serial killers decl…

lol.
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