Wednesday, 11 January 2017

Microsoft Anti-Porn Workers Sue Over PTSD

quote [ Ex-employees of the company’s online safety team say they had to watch horrific online videos of child abuse, bestiality, and murders—and that Microsoft ignored their PTSD. ]
[SFW] [health] [+4 Sad]
[by XregnaR]
<-- Entry / Comment History

hellboy said @ 8:51am GMT on 12th January
I don't understand a few things about this story. For instance, why it's necessary to watch the videos for more than a few seconds. As soon as it's apparent what's happening, wouldn't you stop the video and report it? Why is it necessary to watch the entire video?

Also, while I'm sure looking at this stuff all day long - wait, why are you looking at this stuff all day long? How often do child porn and snuff films actually show up in random user feeds? Once you discover an example of something illegal, wouldn't the rest of your day be spent archiving *all* that person's files or communications and filling out paperwork to report them to authorities? And wouldn't most of your days consist of looking at boring innocuous stuff that's not illegal? How many pedophiles do you catch in a day, or a week, or a year? How frequent are actual infractions?

That's certainly a disturbing thought, but this section was also disturbing:

They “could literally view any customer’s communications at any time.” Specifically, they were asked to screen Microsoft users’ communications for child pornography and evidence of other crimes.

Uh... how much private information is getting violated while hunting for pedophiles? Are these people actually sifting through everyone's communications, or just targeted users? How are they targeting the users? Do Microsoft's terms of service include consenting to random wiretaps? What about bank numbers, personal data, medical information, and so forth? Stuff that isn't illegal but is normally illegal or at least unethical to compromise?

Is Microsoft running honeypot sites like the Post Office (per kylemcbitch)? Isn't that in itself a violation of child pornography laws?


hellboy said @ 8:53am GMT on 12th January
I don't understand a few things about this story. For instance, why it's necessary to watch the videos for more than a few seconds. As soon as it's apparent what's happening, wouldn't you stop the video and report it? Why is it necessary to watch the entire video?

Also, while I'm sure looking at this stuff all day long - wait, why are you looking at this stuff all day long? How often do child porn and snuff films actually show up in random user feeds? Once you discover an example of something illegal, wouldn't the rest of your day be spent archiving *all* that person's files or communications and filling out paperwork to report them to authorities? And wouldn't most of your days consist of looking at boring innocuous stuff that's not illegal? How many pedophiles do you catch in a day, or a week, or a year? How frequent are actual infractions?

That's certainly a disturbing thought, but this section was also disturbing:

They “could literally view any customer’s communications at any time.” Specifically, they were asked to screen Microsoft users’ communications for child pornography and evidence of other crimes.

Uh... how much private information is getting violated while hunting for pedophiles? Are these people actually sifting through everyone's communications, or just targeted users? How are they targeting the users? Do Microsoft's terms of service include consenting to random wiretaps? What about bank numbers, personal data, medical information, and so forth? Stuff that isn't illegal but is normally illegal or at least unethical to compromise?

What about legal-but-non-vanilla stuff like BDSM videos, low-budget horror films, and so forth? Are these workers trained to distinguish between that stuff and actual illegal material? Are they disturbed by hardcore kink between consenting adults, like rape fantasy porn? Are they watching that stuff too?

Is Microsoft running honeypot sites like the Post Office (per kylemcbitch)? Isn't that in itself a violation of child pornography laws?



<-- Entry / Current Comment
hellboy said @ 8:51am GMT on 12th January
I don't understand a few things about this story. For instance, why it's necessary to watch the videos for more than a few seconds. As soon as it's apparent what's happening, wouldn't you stop the video and report it? Why is it necessary to watch the entire video?

Also, while I'm sure looking at this stuff all day long - wait, why are you looking at this stuff all day long? How often do child porn and snuff films actually show up in random user feeds? Once you discover an example of something illegal, wouldn't the rest of your day be spent archiving *all* that person's files or communications and filling out paperwork to report them to authorities? And wouldn't most of your days consist of looking at boring innocuous stuff that's not illegal? How many pedophiles do you catch in a day, or a week, or a year? How frequent are actual infractions?

That's certainly a disturbing thought, but this section was also disturbing:

They “could literally view any customer’s communications at any time.” Specifically, they were asked to screen Microsoft users’ communications for child pornography and evidence of other crimes.

Uh... how much private information is getting violated while hunting for pedophiles? Are these people actually sifting through everyone's communications, or just targeted users? How are they targeting the users? Do Microsoft's terms of service include consenting to random wiretaps? What about bank numbers, personal data, medical information, and so forth? Stuff that isn't illegal but is normally illegal or at least unethical to compromise?

What about legal-but-non-vanilla stuff like BDSM videos, low-budget horror films, and so forth? Are these workers trained to distinguish between that stuff and actual illegal material? Are they disturbed by hardcore kink between consenting adults, like rape fantasy porn? Are they watching that stuff too?

Is Microsoft running honeypot sites like the Post Office (per kylemcbitch)? Isn't that in itself a violation of child pornography laws?




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