CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - We have warned you before the criminals love the web and they try to trick you into telling data about yourself so they can take advantage of you.
Now the tables are turning on the bad guys as Google helps the good guys fight the bad ones.
Just like your clicks on the web leave digital tracks, the same goes for cybercriminals. Google has figured out what it can do to help law enforcement fight back.
WBTV's cyber expert, Theresa Payton, is following this latest development and explains how it works:
WHAT GOOGLE PLANS TO DO:
1. They are meeting with key officials from US and foreign law enforcement to come up with a long term plan
2. They have looked at their own tools such as search, photos, and youtube to determine behavior patterns of criminals and to apply it to potential crime
3. Tracking postings in a way that protects privacy but alerts law enforcement if something about the internet usage does not seem on the "up and up"
4. The effort will be run out of Google's group called Google Ideas.
Law enforcement has a relationship with Google now and has been leveraging the internet to fight crime. Resources such as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, blogs have all been used to help prevent crimes and research cases. Even a tip site called Tip411 was created to help link tipsters to law enforcement.
WORD OF THE WEEK:
Google Safe Search. Google has service set up that parents can ask their kids to use for safer searching. It filters out inappropriate content such as pictures or topics that kids should not be exposed to. You can find it here.
WEB RESOURCES:
Google Safe Search
TIP411
Google's Think Tank
If you want to use Charlotte's online resources for reporting a crime, you can click here.
Copyright 2012 WBTV. All rights reserved.
