Seeing a Facebook photo without permission is like 'stealing a TV': Police
Facebook 'break-ins': police say receiving photos like taking stolen TVs
By Asher MosesUpdated May 18, 2011 — 12.35pmHis comments came in a press conference in which he was asked to clarify details about the arrest of Grubb, the deputy technology editor of Fairfax's news websites.Head of the Queensland Police fraud squad Brian Hay at this morning's press conference.Credit: Munir Kotadia/ZDNet.com.auOfficers from the fraud squad arrested Grubb, who was at a Gold Coast online security conference, and said they were considering charging him with receiving "tainted material", specifically, Facebook photos that were taken from the site by a security researcher to demonstrate flaws in Facebook's privacy settings.The case has raised concerns about internet privacy and how legislation created years ago applies to current technology.This incident comes after Queensland Police in 2008 charged a 61-year-old man with serious child abuse offences over uploading to the internet a foreign video of a Russian circus family that showed a man swinging a baby by its arms.The charges carried a maximum 20-year jail term but all charges were dropped after Fairfax revealed the offending clip had been classified by federal government censors as MA15+.Fairfax journalist Ben Grubb.Detective Superintendent Hay used an analogy to describe why Grubb was targeted."Someone breaks into your house and they steal a TV and they give that TV to you and you know that TV is stolen," he said."The reality is the online environment is now an extension of our real community and if we go into that environment we have responsibilities to behave in a certain way."He said: "I think the cyber environment represents the greatest challenge to law enforcement in the history of policing."He also confirmed that the police media unit misrepresented the situation on its official Twitter feed last night. After Grubb had tweeted about his arrest, the media unit tweeted that he had not been officially arrested, but it was forced to retract that statement this morning."Our bad @bengrubb was arrested for questioning briefly Our tweet last night was based on information provided at the time Apologies," it said this morning.Detective Superintendent Hay described it as a breakdown in communication but he said there was "no charge pending" against Grubb. Grubb was released after just over an hour of questioning.Detective Superintendent Hay refused to discuss the specifics of the Grubb case other than to say police were acting on a complaint about "an alleged hacking incident that saw private material being obtained unlawfully".However, Detective Superintendent Hay could not point to any previous examples of criminal charges being considered over Facebook photos.He said "some aspects" of this matter "most certainly could be a test case" and said complaints about Facebook privacy being eroded were on the increase.He acknowledged that there would be jurisdictional issues as Facebook's servers are located outside Australia.In this case, the security researcher who originally obtained the Facebook photos, Christian Heinrich, has not been charged. He was on a flight back to Sydney before Grubb was arrested.Facebook was asked early yesterday to respond to the privacy failings uncovered by the security researcher but has failed to provide any comment.Detective Superintendent Hay said he had "no idea" about the last time Queensland Police arrested a journalist in connection with a news story. However, he said "no one is immune" from the law."It doesn't happen every week. The reality is journalists and the media are our greatest ally in terms of educating the public and raising awareness of threats that exist," he said.Loading This reporter is on Twitter: @ashermosesMost Viewed in TechnologyLoading