The old engineer Mark (he didn’t give his last name on purpose) added a photo of his naked son. Two days later, Google blocked his account and sent the photo to the police. This story was told by The New York Times.
The incident unexpectedly happened in 2021. Mark noticed that his little son became ill. When examining the house, inflammation is observed in the groin area.
His wife is an anxious nurse to schedule an emergency consultation at the hospital via video link. The nurse asked me to send photos of the groin area so that the doctor could solve the problem in advance.
Mark’s wife took his Android smartphone and made some observations in their son’s groin area. Then she threw them on her iPhone and sent them to a special application. With the help of photographs, the doctor diagnosed and prescribed antibiotics, which quickly helped.
Two days later, Mark came to the smartphone. Google account suspended due to “harmful accumulation” which is “a serious violation of Google policy and may be illegal”.
The account suspension resulted in Mark taking away access to Gmail, which he created in the mid-2000s, calendar, phone book contacts, and communications. The man was using a Google Fi SIM, so communication and phone number also turned out to be blocked.
In addition, at that moment, Mark was going to apply for a mortgage, and many documents were processed online and stored in Gmail. The deal was on the brink of collapse because Mark had to change his address, which aroused suspicion at the bank. Everything worked out thanks to the fact that a realtor vouched for Mark.
The man quickly realized that all this happened due to the fact that all images on his phone are automatically uploaded to Google Photos. At that moment, it just appears a provocative tool to remove malicious video content for one large company, so the equipment is how moderation works.
Mark wrote to Google support to explain the whole situation. The employee confirmed that he would not restore the account without any explanation.
What Mark didn’t know for a moment was that Google had already sent the photos and videos to that San Francisco police station. In December 2021, Mark received a letter in the mail from the police stating that he was under investigation.
The police requested all information about Mark’s account from Google, including his search queries, post history, messages, and all documents, photos and videos that are stored on the company’s servers. Google revealed everything.
The letter also contained the investigator’s contacts. When Mark contacted him, he found out that there was a follow-up and it took a week. The investigator studied Google materials and did not find such cases.. He said he contacted Mark, but his phone number and email didn’t work because Google blocked them.
The investigator added that it could not be used in Google in any way. But Mark decided to write to support again, because now he had a police report. Google refused to restore the account for the second time and forgot that it would be permanently deleted in two months.
A Google spokesperson said the company is sticking to its decisions, although the police acquitted the man. [The New York Times]
Source: Iphones RU
