Google Moving Chinese Records Around
Techdirt reports that Google has moved its Chinese search history data out of China and into the United States, in an effort to keep the data out of the hands of the Chinese government.
Basically, Google, while still giving into the Chinese on net censorship, is still very much against helping get anyone arrested, and has as a result not opened any services that involve stored data (like Gmail) in China. Now, they’re taking the search data out of China, so that if the Chinese government asks for it, they can try to say, “Oh, it isn’t here, sorry”.
Of course, Google moved the data into the U.S., where the government is already famously trying to get access to… search history data. Oops. Techdirt suggests Google move the U.S. search history data to China, while keeping the China data here, and just hope that playing a game of hot potato will get everyone off their back. Methinks Google’s government problems won’t be going away anytime soon.
Suddenly the idea of a data haven seems like a much more plausible idea.
Data centers in the Caymans and the Isle of Man, anyone?
Comment by Brock | March 2, 2006
[…] Nathan Weinberg posts on InsideGoogle: Of course, Google moved the data into the U.S., where the government is already famously trying to get access to… search history data. Oops. Techdirt suggests Google move the U.S. search history data to China, while keeping the China data here, and just hope that playing a game of hot potato will get everyone off their back. Methinks Google’s government problems won’t be going away anytime soon. […]
Pingback by Search Engine Journal » Google Moving China Search Data to United States | March 2, 2006
The difference is even if Google is forced to give up data in the US, people have much more of a fighting chance in the US. Chinese laws and government allows for much less freedom, and less of an ability to oppose the government.
I like the idea of a data haven.
Comment by rr | March 2, 2006
Come on, are you people really so biased as to believe the op-ed pieces that make Government the bad guy and Google the hero?
Have you read the subpoena that Google is failing to comply with? The government wants a random sampling of web page addresses - Google’s choice - that searches bounce against (this is obviously public domain, and NOT private). Also, they want searches, with NO personal data, NO IP addresses tied to search info, just a RANDOM - at Google’s choice - week of searches to help see what people type in to the search box when they are looking for CHILD PORNOGRAPHY.
Google is not a hero, they are doing evil by not supporting the efforts of Law Enforcement to better track down despicable criminals.
Again, NO personal info, and NO IP addresses tied to searches. Just a list.
Also, this info isn’t PRIVATE, isn’t PROTECTED and the vast majority of people have answered “OK” to the browser warning - THE DATA YOU ARE ABOUT TO SUBMIT IS NOT ENCRYPTED AND IS SUBJECT TO INTERCEPTION AND VIEWING BY THIRD PARTIES.
Give me a break, Google. Change your motto to “Do no evil except to children”
Comment by JH | March 14, 2006
[…] Of course, as Nathan Weinberg notes at Inside Google, this doesn’t solve their problems with the United States government. Perhaps they should move their US data into China! […]
Pingback by Clever, Clever Google - Google Moves Data out of China | inter:digital strategies | November 1, 2006