Google human rights accounts attacked from China
Official Google Blog: A new approach to China
Google is officially stating that a number of email accounts hosted by Google were attacked from within China. The accounts seem to be mostly connected to Chinese human rights activists. They also state that this is part of a larger pattern extending over a number of other companies.
The most amazing thing about this is the very aggressive pro-privacy stance Google is taking in response to this. They are saying that they will stop censoring search results at Google.cn. That they will talk with the Chinese about how to do this, but are willing to completely pull out of operations in China if they can’t provide un-censored content from within.
The post is worth reading in full. Here are the concluding paragraphs:
These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered–combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web–have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.
The decision to review our business operations in China has been incredibly hard, and we know that it will have potentially far-reaching consequences. We want to make clear that this move was driven by our executives in the United States, without the knowledge or involvement of our employees in China who have worked incredibly hard to make Google.cn the success it is today. We are committed to working responsibly to resolve the very difficult issues raised.
Wow. We shall see.
- Lance Cottrell
January 15th, 2010 at 8:46 am
Referring to Gmail accounts of activits being accessed by third parties, Google states “these accounts have not been accessed through any security breach at Google, but most likely via phishing scams or malware.” Do you think Google is motivated primarily by desire to protect privacy or is their motivation more likely tied to maintaining their public image?
January 16th, 2010 at 6:28 pm
They are making a very bold move here. I don’t think it is likely to be just to hide some security issue.
I also think it makes sense that the breach would be through phishing or malware, that seems to be the pattern lately.
February 1st, 2010 at 6:37 am
Let’s wait and see how this electronic war between this two powerful players will end up. From this google decision (made, i guess, mainly for making better their public image) hopefully will come a little turn in china censorship politics.