Personal Images Leaked Online? Google May Soon Help You Stop Their Circulation

Google will be partnering with StopNCII, an organisation that works on helping users route the circulation of non-consensual intimate images of them from the world wide web, according to a Bloomberg report.

The tech giant announced that the intimate image removal system will be operational "in the next few months" as it is currently testing the technology.

The organisation facilitates users to create a "hash" which is akin to a universal barcode keyed to an intimate image. This hash is then shared with partner platforms that block the re-uploading of them without the requirement to report or even look at them.

The platform said that no one other than the user will be able to see the image after its send to their database and codified into a hash, and partners will be able to block reuploads of it after seeing it if it violates their content policies.

StopNCII has partnered with platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and OnlyFans. Other platforms that have also partnered with it include TikTok, Bumble and Microsoft's Bing search engine.

In order to create a "hash", users need to visit https://stopncii.org/create-your-case/, and upload the image they wish to have removed. A case number and a pin will be generated to review the progress on the case. It is vital to keep both these things written down as users who forget them will be unable to access their case.

Case numbers can also be used to withdraw a case.

Partner platforms will attempt to match the hash and remove matching images in their system as they are re-uploaded, provided it violates its intimate image abuse policy.

Minors who have had intimate image abuse can use the platform takeitdown.ncmec.com to avail the same service in the same manner.

Google is one of the last platforms to adopt the service in comparison to its peers, according to Bloomberg. When asked by UK lawmakers in April 2024 as to why it would not participate, it said that it had “policy and practical concerns about the interoperability of the database” and therefore could not yet join.

These concerns seem to have been dealt with and Google announced its partnership with StopNCII at the NCII summit on Wednesday in Google's London office.