Microsoft's Child Exploitation Tracking System to Help Police Fight Child Pornography

Yahoo! News reports:

Microsoft and Canadian authorities on Thursday launched a software program designed to help police worldwide hunt down child porn traffickers by enabling authorities for the first time to link information such as credit card purchases, Internet chat room messages and arrest records.

Microsoft said the Child Exploitation Tracking System is the first software designed specifically to capture pornographers who prey on children and sell their images via the Internet. It will allow police departments worldwide to share and track previously unlinked information on investigations and suspects. . . .

[David Hemler, president of Microsoft Canada,] said Microsoft committed $4 million toward the program and that the software would be available to any police force at no cost.

More: Microsoft press release ("Tool Thwarts Online Child Predators ").