Google stops censoring searches in China, may leave after hackers
target protesters' e-mail
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By Michael Liedtke, AP Technology Writer , On Tuesday January 12, 2010, 9:42 pm
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Google Inc. will stop censoring its search
results in China and may pull out of the country completely after
discovering that computer hackers had tricked human-rights activists
into exposing their e-mail accounts to outsiders.
The change of heart announced Tuesday heralds a major shift for the
Internet's search leader, which has repeatedly said it will obey
Chinese laws requiring some politically and socially sensitive issues
to be blocked from search results available in other countries. The
acquiescence had outraged free-speech advocates and even some
shareholders, who argued Google's cooperation with China violated the
company's "don't be evil" motto.
The criticism had started to sway Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who
openly expressed his misgivings about the company's presence in China.
But the tipping point didn't come until Google recently uncovered
hacking attacks launched from within China. The apparent goal:
gathering personal information about dozens of human rights activists
trying to shine a light on the country's censorship and other
secretive policies.
Google officials said they plan to talk to the Chinese government to
determine if there is a way the company can still provide unfiltered
search results in the country. If an agreement can't be worked out,
Google is prepared to leave China four years after creating a search
engine bearing China's Web suffix, ".cn" to put itself in a better
position to profit from the world's most populous country.
"The decision to review our business operations in China has been
incredibly hard, and we know that it will have potentially
far-reaching consequences," David Drummond, Google's top lawyer, wrote
in a Tuesday blog posting.
A spokesman for the Chinese consulate in San Francisco had no immediate comment.
Abandoning China wouldn't put a big dent in Google's earnings,
although it could crimp the company's growth as the country's Internet
usage continues to rise. Google, based in Mountain View, said its
Chinese operations account for an "immaterial" amount of its roughly
$22 billion in annual revenue.
Although Google's search engine is the most popular worldwide, it's a
distant second in China, where the homegrown Baidu.com processes more
than 60 percent of all requests.
Free-speech and human rights groups are hoping Google's about-face
will spur more companies to take a similar stand.
"Google has taken a bold and difficult step for Internet freedom in
support of fundamental human rights," said Leslie Harris, president of
the Center for Democracy & Technology, a civil-liberties group in
Washington. "No company should be forced to operate under government
threat to its core values or to the rights and safety of its users."
It's "an incredibly significant move," said Danny O'Brien,
international outreach coordinator at the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, an Internet rights group in San Francisco. "This changes
the game because the question won't be 'How can we work in China?' but
'How can we create services that Chinese people can use, from outside
of China?'"
Google's new stance on China was triggered by a sophisticated computer
attack orchestrated from within the country. Rep. Anna Eshoo,
D-Calif., praised Google for disclosing chicanery that "raises serious
national security concerns."
Without providing details, Google said it and at least 20 other major
companies from the Internet, financial services, technology, media and
chemical industries were targeted. The heist lifted some of Google's
intellectual property but didn't get any information about the users
of its services, the company said. Google has passed along what it
knows so far to U.S. authorities and other affected companies.
The assault on Google appeared primarily aimed at breaking into the
company's e-mail system, "Gmail," in an attempt to pry into the
accounts of human right activists protesting the Chinese government's
policies.
Only two e-mail accounts were infiltrated in these attacks, Google
said, and the intruders were only able to see subject lines and the
dates that the individual accounts were created. None of the content
written within the body of the e-mails leaked out, Google said.
As part of its investigation into that incident, Google stumbled onto
another scam that was more successful. Google said dozens of activists
fighting the Chinese government's policies fell prey to ruses commonly
known as "phishing" or malware. The victims live in the United States,
Europe and China, Google said.
Phishing involves malicious e-mails urging the recipients to open an
attachment or visit a link that they're conned into believing comes
from a friend or legitimate company. Clicking on a phishing link of
installs malware -- malicious software -- on to computers.
Once it's installed on a computer, malware can be used as a
surveillance tool that can obtain passwords and unlock e-mail
accounts.
Google's unfettered search results won't necessarily ensure more
information will be made available to the average person in China
because the government could still use its own filtering tools, said
Clothilde Le Coz, Washington director for Reporters Without Borders, a
media watchdog group.
"The Chinese government is one of the most efficient in terms of
censoring the Web," she said.
AP Technology Writers Barbara Ortutay in New York, Jessica Mintz in
Seattle and Jordan Robertson in San Francisco contributed to this
report.