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Media Highlight: Should Google share the blame for hacked photos?

Posted by Communications and Marketing on October 16, 2014 in Media Highlights

Posted October 14 by CBC News:

The mass hacking of thousands of nude photos of celebrities has raised questions over how culpable the search engine giant should be for aiding in this particular invasion of privacy, among others.

Lawyers, acting on behalf of a number of unnamed celebrity victims who were victims of the hacking, have threatened a $100 million US lawsuit against Google for not disabling searches for the hacked material quickly enough.

They recently sent off a letter to the company, accusing it of "despicable, reprehensible conduct in not only failing to act expeditiously and responsibly to remove the images, but in knowingly accommodating, facilitating and perpetuating the unlawful conduct."

...

Google makes lot of money from online advertising and monetizing search results is one of its great innovations, notes Jonathon Penney, an assistant professor of law at Dalhousie University.

"So they do benefit from search, and unfortunately they probably benefit from some of the searches for some of these privacy-invading pieces of content."

But Penney added that the lawyers' letter "almost suggests they want Google to go out and proactively prevent this content from being posted. But that's not Google's legal responsibility."

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