GOOGLE reportedly exposed identifying information from victims worldwide who submitted requests to remove illegally obtained sexual images from search results. The Korean newspaper *Hankyoreh* found requests written in English, Japanese, Spanish and Portuguese publicly posted on the website of a Google partner referred to as “Project L”.
One request came from a Brazilian national who said images taken when they were aged 13 or 14 had been distributed without consent and could be found by searching their name alongside “nude”.
Google has said its policy prohibits sharing sensitive information with Project L when processing removals linked to digital sex crimes, attributing the disclosures to “human error”. However, the wider findings have prompted criticism that the incident represents a global system failure rather than isolated mistakes. Following *Hankyoreh*’s reporting and protests by the South Korean government, Google issued a statement on Wednesday, signed by Amanda Storey, its vice-president of trust and safety.
The company said it had “permanently deleted the exposed data relating to victims in Korea” and had “completely halted the transmission of all new legal takedown requests to [Project L]”. The supplied report does not state whether equivalent deletions or suspensions have been confirmed for victims in other countries.