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Google Cracks Down On Mugshot Blackmail Sites

Posted by timothy on from the it'll-cost-ya dept.

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."

22 of 251 comments (clear)

  1. The solution is simple. by __aaltlg1547 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The simple solution is to press extortion charges against websites that offer to take down pictures of the subjects for money.

    1. Re:The solution is simple. by asmkm22 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm pretty sure the pictures are considered public domain, in the same way that certain other legal information is. That's assuming that the person really was convicted of the crime and the picture was officially released or otherwise searchable through traditional means.

      Otherwise, we'd have constant reports of celebrities filling lawsuits every time one of their mugshots is posted.

    2. Re:The solution is simple. by OverlordQ · · Score: 5, Informative

      > the simple solution is not to be a bad person.

      They're putting up *ALL* booking photos. Even those who are innocent. Your solution would work if nobody was ever wrongly arrested.

      --
      Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
    3. Re:The solution is simple. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's obviously public domain, but by when require a ransom to take it down, it becomes extortion.

    4. Re:The solution is simple. by Seumas · · Score: 5, Informative

      It doesn't work.

      Google should ALSO be pulling the plug on that "rip off report" site that let's anyone leave negative comments of any kind about anyone under any circumstances (including name, phone number, domains, address, etc) and never *ever* removes it . . . but will work with the person being attacked . . . if they pay for the "business/corporate relation services".

      I banned a user from my website almost a decade ago for defrauding other users, using false information for their account, and sending death threats to other users (and myself) and shortly after, that person posted some pretty awful stuff on the site which I have no way to ever remove, unless I want to submit to the extortion of the guy behind that site. Google includes their results right at the top of most people's results (though I believe Yahoo! has since dinged the domain for SEO spamming).

      It's no different than these mugshots, except that at least with mugshots, you have been arrested. With these "reputation" and "consumer protection" sites that are actual extortionists (especially this one), you don't have to have been arrested. Or even have done business with the person making the attack. Or even *have* a business (I don't and didn't). You can literally just take anyone you're pissed off at and sale vile things about them on the site, include personal information and contact information and so on, and it'll be up there until the end of time, marring any searches for them in the future.

    5. Re:The solution is simple. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I applaud Google for this move but the solution is for LEO not to release pictures or other personally identifiable information about people who have not been convicted in the first place because doing so can ruin an innocent person's life and innocent people get charged with crimes all the time. On a related note, when Strauss-Kahn got the "perp walk" treatment, many in France were shocked because the practice is banned there to protect the innocent,

    6. Re:The solution is simple. by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 5, Interesting

      In other countries such pictures get not published. They are property of the government (hence copyrighted) and according to privacy laws and laws about your personal right to have control over the fotos taken from you, publishinig them is a copyright infringement, a infringement on privacy and demanding money to remove them from "the internet" is blackmailing and fraud.
      If some one would do that with my mugshot in my country he had bad luck. Surprising that in gods own country people obviously have no rights at all and need a new law every year to combat such exploits.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    7. Re:The solution is simple. by kermidge · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't think you know how things work.

      Even for the simple exercise of free speech and assembly, the order of the day is increasingly "catch and release", often without so much as a ticket for most yet all are routinely fingerprinted and photographed. This was not uncommon all the way back to anti-war protests in the '70s and it's only gotten worse.

      Will you seriously contend that exercising basic rights [once-upon-a-time] protected by the constitution makes one a bad person?

      Mayhap you presume that anyone arrested is automatically guilty of something and deserving of conviction? Is someone convicted under what is later shown to be bad law also a bad person?

      Well, then, carry on, Citizen, the State needs more like you.

    8. Re:The solution is simple. by MisterSquid · · Score: 5, Interesting

      In the US since the late 1980's, getting arrested for any (and no) reason has become a huge socioeconomic problem as many employers, including low-tier employers, run background checks on prospective employees that flag subjects in the Federal NCIC database which records all arrests regardless of conviction, acquittal, guilt, or innocence.

      As a result, many people (but especially black males and LNWI's, or Low Net Worth Individuals) are relegated to a lifetime of poor employment prospects, unable to land jobs even as burger-flippers. This is true even if these arrestees are innocent!

      Dale Carson, a criminal defense attorney with experience as a police officer and an FBI agent, has written a book called "Arrest-Proof Yourself" which basically makes the argument that individuals should do anything they can (within the law) to avoid arrest for the simple fact that in the United States being arrested will bring incalculable financial harm to people who find themselves arrested for any reason.

      The book is enlightening and can be profitably be read by almost everyone, even if one's risk of arrest is low.

      --
      blog
    9. Re:The solution is simple. by interval1066 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is a real problem. In an age where you can destroy a completely innocent life with a few mouseclicks I'm really surprised there's not been more of an outcry. Its trivial to destroy some one's credit and make them look like they're felons... and complete hell to correct these things.

      --
      Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
    10. Re:The solution is simple. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      That applies only to the Federal government. State, county and municipal governments, who generate the vast majority of mugshots are free to set whatever copyright policies they wish.

    11. Re:The solution is simple. by nbauman · · Score: 4, Informative

      Good, somebody read the exceptions.

      There are also privacy rights, which go beyond the copyright.
      http://www.loc.gov/homepage/legal.html#privacy_publicity

      Since these web sites are trying to make money, there may also be publicity rights, which are subject to even greater restrictions.

    12. Re:The solution is simple. by nbauman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes, it is simple. Don't do illegal stuff.

      And don't be black.

    13. Re:The solution is simple. by interval1066 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That post was moderated "troll", seriously? And I thought /. was populated with atleast a few thinkers... I defy anyone to make me see the light and explain how that was a troll?

      --
      Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
    14. Re:The solution is simple. by mrclisdue · · Score: 4, Funny

      How can we do that if you don't give us the name?

      Simple, just google "sexual predator", and she's the one beside him.

      cheers,

    15. Re:The solution is simple. by MBGMorden · · Score: 4, Informative

      You still missed the point.

      An arrest doesn't mean you're guilty. It doesn't mean you even had anything to do with what happened.

      You go out in an Old Navy T-shirt and jeans one day and someone wearing the same clothes snatches an old lady's purse. You could very well get arrested because you match the description. Even if you prove that you're innocent of everything but similar fashion choices as a criminal, you still have an arrest record (no conviction, but an arrest). A lot of places will discriminate on that arrest record - even when found innocent. That is not fair, and is by no means an accurate way to gauge the trustworthiness of potential employees.

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
    16. Re:The solution is simple. by CodeBuster · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Even if you prove that you're innocent of everything but similar fashion choices as a criminal, you still have an arrest record

      Precisely. That is why Dale Carson suggests in the book that you don't dress in clothing that is commonly worn by criminals or at least the street walking kind. A suit and tie combined with neat personal grooming, clean haircut and respectful attitude is best and will buy you much leeway with most police officers, but at the very least avoid sports jerseys and baggy pants and be polite. The better that you look and act like an honest upstanding citizen the less likely the police are to stop or arrest you. If you drive a car, make sure that it's clean and well maintained. The basic premise here is to be the person that you want to be seen as, not the person that the police like to arrest. You might call that profiling and it is, but that's reality. These things are doubly true for young blacks and hispanics who are more likely to be stopped by police than a WASP, all other things being equal.

    17. Re:The solution is simple. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Uhm, no?

      ~five years ago I was arrested by US customs and handed over to the FBI when arriving in the USA (on my own ship). Accused of smuggling drugs and being part of a criminal organisation. As the charges were bullocks I was eventually freed and actually apologised to ("wrong ship, we acted on an anonymous informer" etc etc etc... turns out this happens to sailors a LOT when entering the US..). My photo can still be found on those websites though and as the business I'm in is based on trust (I'm a consultant doing IT network safety for big companies / governments) I loose work on this. Basically I'm being punished even though I did not nothing wrong.

    18. Re:The solution is simple. by oobayly · · Score: 4, Informative

      The best solution is suck it up and bite the bullet, when enough people get busted and the questionable behaviour gets exposed as being the norm people become less embarrassed by. For the lying hypocritical jackass political types, who try to make our lives a misery expose the more and more and more.

      What about the people who were arrested as they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, and subsequently released without charge. Why should their photos be up there, and why should they be expected to pay to have them removed.

      The Dutch have the right idea - you're not allowed to publish a person's name or likeness (photo, artist's rendition) unless they have been convicted. It has occasionally resulted in the amusing situation of CCTV stills being published with a box over the eyes, but it certainly stops people's lives being fucked up by the media who will plaster faces on the front page, and then ignore it when they are never charged.

  2. Common names have their own pitfalls by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

    Someone (like a prospective employer) searching your name on Google will not know if a mugshot photo is you or just someone with the same common name.

    On the other hand, having the same as a criminal can still confuse human resources departments who assume that the person whose name is on the application is the same person whose mugshot is on the site, provided the skin color matches. It's happened with the no-fly list, and it's happened with a 4-year-old rapist.

  3. Ya, but... by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... if they ban mugshots, then only criminals will have them. :-)

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  4. My autistic sister has her mugshot online by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The cop she lived next to didn't know she was autistic, and when someone kicked his screen door he assumed it must be her and had her booked on assault and vandalism charges. A judge ruled within hours to let her go and expunge her record, but those sites have her photo all over the place.