Google has posted the brief they submitted to the Congressional Human Rights Caucus justifying their participation in Chinese censorship of information. The argument basically boils down to "providing Chinese access to filtered information is better than no information." Another nugget…
Category: Search Engines
More on Search Engine IP Logging
John Battelle did some digging for a reader who wondered whether Google (and search engines in general) could easily match search terms with IP addresses, and vice versa. Here are the questions Battelle bounced off his contacts at Google:"Given a…
In Support of Google
Some arguments in support of Google's participation in Chinese censorship: From Google itself, arguing that service for Chinese users will be better overall, and that some information is better than no information at all:Google users in China today struggle with…
Google’s Action Makes A Mockery Of Its Values
Bambi Francisco writes that Google's recent decision to officially censor search results in China violates its core values:It's profound what being a public company can do to the core values of a young firm. was less than two years ago…
Google Updates Censorship Policy
Google's official policy on censoring and otherwise altering search results has been updated since their decision to provide censored results for China. The policy can be found at the help page for the question "Does Google censor search results?" The…
Students for a Free Tibet Protest Outside Google
Philipp Lenssen points to this report that a group of people from Students for a Free Tibet gathered in front of the Googleplex to protest against Google bowing to Chinese censorship requests. From SFT's press release:"Students and young people worldwide…
77% of Google users don’t know it records personal data
The Register reports on a recent poll finding that "More than three quarters of web surfers don't realize Google records and stores information that may identify them." While I can't vouch for the validity of the poll, it certainly seems…
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Google Now Officially Censoring In China
Google has officially launched google.cn, a version of its search service designed to appease the Chinese government's desire to block searches related to Taiwanese or Tibetan independence, the Tiananmen massacre, Falun Gong, etc. CNN posted this statement from Google on…
NYT: Internet Users Thinking Twice Before a Search
Katie Hafner of the New York Times writes how some Internet users have changed their search habits now that concerns about government surveillance of web seaches has reached the forefront of the public mind. Among the many anecdotes related in…
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The Slipperly Slope of DOJ v. Google
Steven Levy's Newsweek article on the DOJ v. Google issue closes with a prescient warning of the slipper slope allowing government access to web search history would create:Though the government intends to use these data specifically for its COPA-related test,…
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