With GigaTribe 3.01.005, we introduced a new feature which gives the ability to report an user. The purpose of this blog post is to clarify this initiative.
– Why does GigaTribe offer a “Report user” feature?
GigaTribe is aware that applicable laws in one country are not necessarily applicable in another. Forbidden contents in one country can be authorized in another.
As a service provider, GigaTribe respects the Internet neutrality and does not take side for a specific jurisdiction.
Moreover, GigaTribe has zero information about files transferred.
The “Report user” feature is the consequence of multiple users´ requests to report Child abuse contents.
– What does GigaTribe do when receiving a Report?
GigaTribe redirects users to the French authorities in charge of child protection.
GigaTribe does not send any information to any authority when receiving users´ reports.
– What´s next?
Based on users´ reports elements, French authorities will decide to investigate or not.
As part of this investigation, they can ask GigaTribe for further information.
GigaTribe will respect the Law and assist the authorities in their investigation.
Nevertheless, GigaTribe cannot provide any information about shared contents since we have zero information about files transfered.
– How to report a user?
Right click on a file or folder shared by the malicious user. Then click “Report user…”.
GigaTribe Blog 
Well, I’m canceling all my subscriptions. Or I guess I just won’t subscribe anymore monthly. Enjoy losing money, I know several people who will do the same.
Not everyone likes the feeling of being watched, regardless of what they’re doing.
@Zink,
We do not and cannot watch what your are sharing.
No worries Zink your not alone! A lot of guys are opting out as Giga has gone to the dogs and is nothing more then giving its self bit by bit to other company’s interests. Why do you think they are adding the ability to spy on users? well just look at there new sponsor Facebook they been doing it for a long time now. Giga was founded on privacy but money and advertiser talk and Giga rakes in the money! Makes you wonder about there new feature tribes who will that be for? certainly not us!
hello, stand well beyond that button, but = is exaggerated. that a friend in your network would have to report you for something.
but = if you admit people who barely know in face or elsewhere. run the risk that your report by nonsense.
happened to me in hi5. someone reported me for a picture of me in speedo from when I was 13 years. someone he thought was wrong Thanks to that, Hi5 cancel my account with them
@David Blank,
Sorry to say that but you just don’t know what you are talking about. There is no way GigaTribe “gives itself bit by bit to other company’s interests”.
We do not have and we will never have the ability to spy on our users. The concept of GigaTribe is just about privacy. Why would we do that?
We do not know, we cannot know and we do not want to know what contents you are sharing and with who you are sharing.
Right, so making the claim that you aren’t able to know what is being transferred totally makes the Report feature acceptable.
You’re basically telling us that you’re going to BLINDLY send reports to AUTHORITIES based on NOTHING but an unfounded report.
Great, why not just break out the pitchforks and rope?
Say contact A, B, and C have been on your list since the beginning. But contact B doesn’t like you one day and decides to send false reports. Regardless of what’s in the report there is hassle involved, suddenly there’s a case on some law enforcement officer’s desk with your name on it. I say that is pure BS.
You want to claim you keep privacy but you don’t want to have the responsibility for dealing with features that YOU implement.
Also, what happened to a new release of GT? The crash issues are really irritating.
If the reporting is to stop child abuse from very sick people, i am all for it, Children who suffer from this end up being one of many different personalities, even end up as murderers. I read very carefully, why reporting is now available, i doubt gigatribe are interested in anything but PUTTING A STOP TO CHILD PORN AND THE ABUSE THAT GOES WITH IT. Good on you Gigatribe i think the child porn users will now think twice about using Giga for the wrong reasons.
Since changing to the latest version, my pm messages are not going to the people intended. I have had 2 people today tell me they got my pm meant for someone else. Is this problem going to be fixed?
@Toshi
The “Report user” feature is the consequence of multiple users´ requests to report Child abuse contents.
Users do not dare to contact the authority directly to avoid answering questions on their contact list or on the files they’re sharing. However they do want someone to deal with members sharing child porn.
We’ve been aware of this issue for long and first we reported users ourself. It gave no result since we had zero element to give to the authority. GigaTribe has no right to investigate on someone, every user is protected by the secrecy of correspondence.
With the new report feature, we’re making it easier for anyone to warn the authority. When the authority receives many alerts about the same users, they are likely to start an investigation and catch the criminal.
Saying we “don’t want to have the responsibility for dealing with features we implemented” is nonsense. First because do NOT have any responsibility as we can’t check what is being exchanged, it’s forbidden by law. Second because GigaTribe had no obligation to implement a ‘report feature’.
We knew many users would not read our explanations in full. We knew it would create confusion which would harm our business.
We’ll keep on explaining why we did it and how it has been implemented so that everyone understand we’re only threatening criminals sharing child porn.
@Stephane, I think most users can and do appreciate the work you all are doing to fight the movement of illegal pornography. I also appreciate your taking the time to explain it in this forumn.
You can keep using the excuse that you don’t have the responsibility and you can keep using the excuse that you ‘know’ we’re not reading your explanations in full. At the end of the day though they’re still just that — excuses.
It is your responsibility since you implemented the feature in the first place. It’s your closed-source program and it’s your every right to do what you wish with it. Just don’t expect paying customers to not complain about features they don’t like. At the same time try not to be an arrogant ***wipe about it by talking down to us as if we have no technical understanding whatsoever.
A lot of us use this program for transparency. When you start giving power to another company or an authoritative force, then your application no longer becomes transparent. I frankly do not give a damn about the child porn problem, it’s everywhere and authorities should deal with it on their own.
If you haven’t been paying attention to the news in any modern nation, then I guess I should inform you that we’re all moving towards a police state planet.
Sure, you claim to not have the right to investigate someone — you just have the right to let someone else investigate them by giving them more tools to do so.
You forget that there are users out there who DON’T read what you’re saying and who AREN’T aware of the consequences when they report someone. You have to realize that it can be a very big potentially abused feature for malicious people who don’t have a clue about what they’re doing. And that’s dangerous no matter how you look at it.
Stop with the excuses and maybe fix the crash issues or make new features that have been requested for a long time before pissing off the rest of your userbase.
Thanks.
@twinacres,
Yes it will be fixed on the next version.
I don’t see the problem here. i’m using gt for a long time now (allmost 4 years) and still it’s my favorite program because it does what it says… and the report user function is something i would like to see on other programs too.
How long is it gonna be before an update? Did you guys go on vacation or something? You were banging out new versions like clockwork and now there’s a sudden halt.
@Diaz,
Nope! we are working hard!
we will release a new version as soon as we can.
I think your on the wrong path! I am testing gigatribe out both 2.52 and 3.01.005, your users are correct the inadvisability issue is still there in both versions! I have tested two copy’s of giga, and this is a server issue not a software issue. Presently as reported I have two giga 2.52 accounts going at the same time and using easy connection showing offline.. there not offline both are online showing other contacts that are also online. This also holds true for version 3.01.005 on both accounts and at times with direct connection but not as often as easy connection. I think it would pay to investigate as a server issue. Unless you have a fix I have missed? but its not gigatribe 3.01.005
I cannot stay connected to the present version, or if I am lucky enough to stay connected for a second, I cannot add or delete people because I get booted.
Also, it takes anywhere from 7 to 10 minutes to log back in. Is this going to get better or should I go back to the free version?
@Janet,
Hello Janet,
I suggest you to contact our hotline. They will help you fix this problem: contact@gigatribe.com
Look up unintended consequences. What’s to stop a small group that dislikes another person from reporting them to authorities even if that person has no child porn. what if someone reports someone else who has mp3 files? It’s a slippery slope as to what is allowed to be reported next. What if the RIAA offers you money to add a feature to report people with MP3 files? Music and movie sharing is illegal in most countries.
It’s funny that out of ALL the features that have been requested we get this and facebook crap. Not a stable connection or more security/privacy features?
I don’t mean to be blunt but I’d assume that child porn people trade amongst themselves. I can’t imagine someone trading music files would come across child porn, it doesn’t make sense. And why does it only go to the French authorities??? Why not the U.S.?
The best thing to do is remove the report user feature and either put links of the site to report child porn or simply let people use their common sense to report a user themselves. I mean, how hard is it to Google “report child porn U.S.”?
you have got to fix this programm
it crashes too much almost everytime you add or delete someone (not good enough)
and if this is a free software transfer program why do you need a report this person facility ???
I absolutely agree with Michael, Toshi and some other comments I’ve seen about the new feature.
And yes…still waiting on that update. The crashing is really annoying. I have thousands and thousands of mp3s and other files to share, and when I have to sign in, GitaTribe takes awhile to scan all those files and read the shared folders. Having to do this every time it decides to crash is very patience testing.
Well, this update is very useful when a malicious user wants to share fraudulent and illegal material without your consentment. Sure, the “report user” function is indeed a big move against software piracy and explicit child and other kinds of pornography, but it’s enough severe in my taste. Sending a report to French authorities is a tedious task, because GigaTribe is used by about a million of PC and Mac users worldwide and it’s almost impossible to identify the location from which the fraudulent material has been sent/received.
A solution to the problem is to send a report to the local authorities of many countries around the globe, starting from EU countries. This move will further help fighting both the piracy and pornography much efficiently.
I just love how they ignore all of our complaints, even though a lot of us are paying customers (including myself).
Let me just put it this way: The way you guys have handled yourselves so far about the entire situation along with recent feature updates & the fact that you’re now partnered with Facebook just tells me I should invest my money somewhere else. I canceled my monthly subscriptions across three different accounts a few days ago.
We never partnered with facebook.
Our facebook application is here to help our users to invite new friends. You are free to use it or not.
Regardless, that would just be the tip of the iceberg. I don’t like the direction that you guys have decided to go. Been a member for a few years now so I’m not pleased with the recent decisions.
With any technology criminals will always find a way to utilize it for nefarious purposes. Gigatribe is no exception. Gigatribe was created and advertised in the beginning to share photos and files with your family and friends. Since then Gigatribe has expanded to facebook integration and further exposure to Social networking. This would seem to be a normal progression, some may approve and some may not. Personally I do not like social and open networks. Users should always remember when using ANY information sharing software or websites and inviting strangers into your web of trust, you are exposing yourself to the unknown and harsh elements to the environment.
As for the “REPORT USER” issue. Gigatribe, get rid of it. Or at least get rid reporting to law enforcement.
Now for the fix. Gigatribe: incorporate a user generated list of questions that the Gigatribe member can create. These questions will be visible for those who wish to join someone else’s “friend list”. They must answer all the questions to get approval to join.
Of these questions of course would be: You agree not to share illegal p0rnogr@phy… etc. If the person is later to in fact violate this “agreement”, then the user should report the offenders screen name to Gigatribe, and gigatribe should then Ban the screen name from the Gigatribe service.
Now for reporting child p0rn0gr@phy. Educate yourself, and learn how to track down the offenders IP address. take screenshots of the illegal material and submit it YOURSELF to LE.
There is software out there that can enable users to monitor what IP addresses you are connected to. To differentiate the traffic and determine who the offending gigatribe user is fairly simple.
Start downloading something from the criminal (DO NOT DOWNLOAD ILLEGAL MATERIAL, YOU WOULD BE JUST AS GUILTY), see what IP address is currently using the incoming bandwidth for the download, take a screenshot of that. That is your criminal. Report it to LE, look up their ISP, report it to their ISP, go on this blog and Blog about them! Expose them, post the offenders screenname. Drive them out of their shadows, they will run, and they will be caught, those in LE that hunt for these predators will see this, your blog, and replicate your findings. Show these criminals the Gigatribe community is no place for them.
GIGATRIBE/Shalsoft, get out of the “big brother” business, perceived or otherwise. Let the community police themselves.
Gigausers, take some responsibility for your own actions for letting strangers into your trusted circle. DO NOT look for answers from Gigatribe. Gigatribe has given you the freedom to share legal material securely. Gigausers, you must protect your freedoms or they will be eroded or lost. Involve Shalsoft (Gigatribe), and the only answer is BIG AND BIGGER BROTHER policing you, and all law abiding net citizens of Gigatribe.
Now take that and apply it to your thinking about your own government and then maybe Toshi, Michael, and Kyle would never have to argue their valid points.
Don’t worry about user report. You should better worry about your IP address. Any user can find your IP adress of any gigatribe user in his friend’s list with some softwares available on the net !