Google Cracks Down On Mugshot Blackmail Sites

Google is apparently displeased with sites designed to extract money from arrestees in exchange for removing their mugshot pictures online, and is tweaking its algorithms to at least reduce their revenue stream. From the article at The New York Times: "It was only a matter of time before the Internet started to monetize humiliation. ... The sites are perfectly legal, and they get financial oxygen the same way as other online businesses — through credit card companies and PayPal. Some states, though, are looking for ways to curb them. The governor of Oregon signed a bill this summer that gives such sites 30 days to take down the image, free of charge, of anyone who can prove that he or she was exonerated or whose record has been expunged. Georgia passed a similar law in May. Utah prohibits county sheriffs from giving out booking photographs to a site that will charge to delete them. ... But as legislators draft laws, they are finding plenty of resistance, much of it from journalists who assert that public records should be just that: public."

Comments

Re:The solution is simple.

[Anonymous Coward]

the simple solution is not to be a bad person.

Re:The solution is simple.

[fermion]

Yes, it is simple. Don't do illegal stuff. For most people when the do illegal stuff it stays on their record. Write a bad check when you are 20 and there is a potential misdemenor, if not a felony, on your record all you life. Get caught in a situation where you commit a felony when you 18 and you can't vote.

The stories in the NYT, were, for the most part kids who cut a sweet heart deal and got away with stuff that the many people would not. Honestly, i don't believe in the drug laws, but I do think following laws, at least enough to not get caught is a sign of discipline and intelligence, characteristics that employers want. I suspect that the vast majority of us do not end up in booking.

So yes, these sites are going to cause a problem because it puts these people at competitive disadvantage. Just like a degree, or one's weight, or one's decision to wear a t-shirt and jeans instead of a suit. But at some point one decides to transport 9 pills across sate lines because one thinks one is better than everyone else and the laws do not apply, or because there has alwsys been protection from the laws applying to you. Until they do, then one starts whining on how unfair life is. All while some less fortunate kid is spending 10 years in jail for a single hit of crack.

Here is what I compare this to. The online sexual predator list. When it was first created I argued against it because it was going to do more harm than good, and at some point it would put pressure on prosecutors to not charge people who were sexual predators because they would be on the list. Fast forward to today. Parents are whining because their son, who did nothing more than have sex with a drunk girl, video it, and post it online, are being put on the list as a sexual predator. Defense attorney's are using it in the defense of sexual predators.

But in both cases it is what society has decided are practical consequences to punish convicted criminals. We want to know if we have sexual predator next door. Employers want to know if they are hiring a criminals. In both cases we are safe if we don't do the crime.

If we do the crime, then I guess we are conditioned by our upbringing to complain the life is unfair.

But really, i try not do crime. That is my simple solution.