Report: Google's Chinese Search Prototype Logs Phone Numbers, Hides Unapproved Pollution Data

Gizmodo.com ^ | 5:20pm September 15, 2018 Filed to: DON'T BE EVIL | Tom McKay

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Google’s widely reported search engine prototype for China, which is allegedly code-named Dragonfly, not only blacklists search terms to comply with the wishes of government censors but ties all searches to devices’ phone numbers, according to a report on Friday from the Intercept.

Google pulled out of China in 2010 amid censorship concerns and a cyberattack that compromised some human rights activists’ accounts, but it is reportedly planning a return to cash in on a massive market that has been overtaken by rivals. To do so, though, they need to comply with the whims of Chinese authorities. The Intercept wrote that internal documents show “Google compiled a censorship blacklist that included terms such as ‘human rights,’ ‘student protest,’ and ‘Nobel Prize’ in Mandarin” for use in the Dragonfly project. It also added in features that appear to have been developed for the sole purpose of making it as easy as possible for the government to swoop in on anyone searching for that kind of thing:

Sources familiar with the project said that prototypes of the search engine linked the search app on a user’s Android smartphone with their phone number. This means individual people’s searches could be easily tracked – and any user seeking out information banned by the government could potentially be at risk of interrogation or detention if security agencies were to obtain the search records from Google.

“This is very problematic from a privacy point of view, because it would allow far more detailed tracking and profiling of people’s behavior,” said Cynthia Wong, senior internet researcher with Human Rights Watch. “Linking searches to a phone number would make it much harder for people to avoid the kind of overreaching government surveillance that is pervasive in China.”

[Lurkinanloomin]

Whatever evil they learn over there will be applied over here.

[Raycpa]

Probably already doing it here.

[Skywise]

Make no mistake - Google has become a fascist corporation in bed with the communists of all nations - in China... and the Democrats here. They are for oppressing the people. Use them at your peril.

[sergeantdave]

“Whatever evil they learn over there will be applied over here.”

Are you suggesting that Google is hiding a division of social justice weenies who will come and get us?

[Fedora]

So Google kowtows to the Chinese government while undermining the U.S. government. How far do their loyalties to China go?

[musicman]

Less Than $786 To Go!!

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