Google Sent Child Porn to Police, but They Still Needed Warrant

Child pornography images on a defendant’s email attachment that Google forwarded to law enforcement officers were improperly used against him during his trial, the Ninth Circuit said.

The “private search exception” to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement was inapplicable to Luke Wilson’s case, because an electronic assessment was used to flag the images and no one at Google ever viewed them, the opinion by Judge Marsha S. Berzon said.

Because the San Diego Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force agent who opened the electronic images didn’t obtain a warrant first, all the evidence against Wilson must be suppressed and his ...