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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

#461

Post by hedora »

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…

> In a statement, Google said, “Child sexual abuse material is abhorrent

I love the use of the disclaimer "sexual" here, to make it clear they don't care about other types of child abuse (like interfering with access to health care, which Google is clearly guilty of in this case...)

Well crafted weasel words, PR folks!

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

#462

Post by jrmg »

userbinator wrote: post #459
jrmg wrote: post #453

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I’m something of a two factor authentication Luddite. I (think) I understand the benefits - but the fact that every factor is an additional single point of failure freaks me out.

TOTP keys, backed up physically (as in, written down and stored somewhere safe), are probably a good way to balance the failure mode with the security.

Many (most?) things demanding my phone number as a ‘second factor’ don’t give that option, unfortunately.

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

#463

Post by ryandrake »

41b696ef1113 wrote: post #377
MrDresden wrote: post #102

I keep telling anyone who will listen that they need to move every aspect of their online identity away from the big tech giants, and make sure that each type of service (email, webpage, memory storage, document storage, backups, contacts, etc) is compartmentalized in such a way that if one gets removed then it wont affect the others in any way. Imagine having all your memories in the form of images and videos taken…

I want to, really I do, but it feels like trading one devil for another. Email is by far the biggest albatross around my neck. To migrate email requires me to setup two different failure points: purchase a domain and a Fastmail-like service. Now that is two different places that are subject to me forgetting to pay a bill, being social engineered into giving away my account, etc. To say nothing of the long tail of acq…

E-mail should be the first thing you migrate, precisely because it is the key to every other service you rely on. If you're randomly banned from your E-mail service, you're pretty much screwed. E-mail is too important to let someone else host. Move it as close to your own control as your technical ability allows. Do it today, in fact, do it right now.

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

#464

Post by wormer »

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?

Anti-trust laws, regulation on how to handle criminal activity on their platform (transfer detected pornography cases to law enforcement and allow them to decide what to do with the person and its related accounts. Google should not be handling something like this), and other privacy laws? I don't get why you tried to make this gotcha, this isn't a stretch by any imagination - the auto industry is incredibly regulated in the US and that's working well. Or just look at the privacy laws in the EU.

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

#465

Post by hedora »

MerelyMortal wrote: post #373
peoplefromibiza wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maybe not you specificially, but for example in the U.S., there are over three million people with security clearances it's private files, not secret state information. things like my address book, SMS (mostly inbound alerts, nobody sends them anymore), WhatsApp backups (which are encrypted) or pictures I took with the phone's camera, nothing compromising.

> it's private files Exactly, which for some people contains content that you could blackmail them with. > pictures I took with the phone's camera I'm glad you don't take nude selfies, or cheat on your spouse through SMS, etc; but others do, and that potentially makes them susceptible to blackmail. What if, instead of money, the blackmailers asked Jeff Bezos for access to some AWS servers. He most likely is not the o…

You mean like that time when the NSA got Yahoo's CEO, Marissa Mayer, to bypass multiple legally-mandated data access controls and deploy an email scanner over the objections of senior leadership?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yahoo-nsa-exclusive-idUSK...

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

#466

Post by Tiddles-the2nd »

> “I decided it was probably not worth $7,000, [to sue Google]” he said.

This is a big part of the problem, technically you have a recourse, but the cost for individuals is a barrier to justice. Organisations have a lot of freedom to act behind the cost to litigate.

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

#467

Post by Aeolun »

ISL wrote: post #153
ugjka wrote: post #71

> Not only did he lose emails, contact information for friends and former colleagues, and documentation of his son’s first years of life, his Google Fi account shut down, meaning he had to get a new phone number with another carrier. Without access to his old phone number and email address, he couldn’t get the security codes he needed to sign in to other internet accounts, locking him out of much of his digital life.…

One solution to many of these concerns is a periodic backup (via Takeout) of your Google account.

I have tried this many times, and literally the only time it succeeded was when I had it exported to Google Drive.

It feels like they built it to say that you can, but your data is still just as locked as before…

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

#468

Post by tomohawk »

hedora wrote: post #452
tomohawk wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What would you recomend, then? At least the two I recommend won't destroy your whole digital life if they don't like you.

I think the issue is that you're trying to optimize for patient privacy, quality of health care service, and doctor productivity. The other commenter is trying to optimize for "doctor does not go to jail". The two goals are mutually exclusive in this case.

Go to jail? Signal, for example, provides end to end encryption for all uses. Whatsapp does not appear to do that:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2021/09/whatsapp-end-to-end-...

It would seem like there would be HIPAA concerns with using a channel that does not guarantee privacy, and allows Big Corp to snoop on the content.

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

#469

Post by sreevisakh »

GekkePrutser wrote: post #156
ugjka wrote: post #71

> Not only did he lose emails, contact information for friends and former colleagues, and documentation of his son’s first years of life, his Google Fi account shut down, meaning he had to get a new phone number with another carrier. Without access to his old phone number and email address, he couldn’t get the security codes he needed to sign in to other internet accounts, locking him out of much of his digital life.…

I moved that off too. Aurora Store in anonymous mode works great and also shows privacy info of each app

The biggest problem with Play store is that many apps are geographically restricted. That includes banking and public transport apps. Some apps are restricted without even the knowledge of the developer. Most of those apps have no good reason at all to be restricted like that. Such apps often cannot be accessed through Aurora. Sadly, there are no laws or provisions to challenge such unethical tactics. Using Google's services is like living with a manipulative and abusive partner.

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

#470

Post by xupybd »

adventured wrote: post #456
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The similarity is because it's an example of something other cultures see as normal, or at least harmless, but in the US it is seen as an egregious offense. Not hard for me to imagine a 7 year old American getting expelled and potentially prosecuted for trying to play a "Kancho" prank on a friend.

And many normal cultural things in the US would be regarded as an egregious offense in Japan (which has a very rigid, conservative, homogenous culture). So what.

We had a similar practice here in Rugby https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hopoate

"During a 2001 game with the North Queensland Cowboys, Hopoate inserted fingers in three players' backsides and anuses. The first incident occurred during the seventh minute of play. The matter was referred to the rugby league judiciary on 28 March. Hopoate was suspended for 12 weeks for what one commissioner described as "disgusting, violent, offensive behaviour""

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