Google Moving PRC Records Out of China

Lam1969 writes "Google says it is moving search records out of China and back to the U.S. to prevent the Chinese government from accessing them, reports Computerworld. Additionally, the company will let Chinese users know when search results are being censored. According to Peter Norvig, Google's director of research, 'Some of the people want to query about democracy, but most of them just want to know about their pop stars.'"

Comments

The reach of national laws

[Aspirator]

It is interesting that an American company are moving data out of China,
in order to make it inaccessible to Chinese law.

At the same time American (and some other countires) law is assuming more
global coverage.

Because that could *never* happen here...

[pla]

back to the U.S. to prevent the Chinese government from accessing them

Yeah, great idea - Because, y'know, the "land of the free" would never try to force Google to turn over its search records. And certainly never for something as frivolous as trying to further the religious agenda of right-wing crackpots... Oh, I mean "democracy". Slip of the tongue there, please ignore it.


So will we hear tomorrow that they've moved all search records involving porn to Japan, to protect them from the US government?

Re:Wait a minute

[pomo monster]

Yeah, and the fact that the present administration is holding anyone indefinitely without trial--U.S. citizens or no--is totally against the principles for which we're supposedly fighting.

Re:Wait a minute

[donutello]

No, China would never do something like that.

What kind of fucking bubble world do some of you idiots live in? Yes, our rights are being eroded away and the US government is doing many bad things and we need to fight that but don't be so stupid as to let that diminish the much worse atrocities of certain other governments.

Re:Wait a minute

[SquadBoy]

The Constitution says *nothing* about human rights. Inalienable or otherwise.

That would be the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence was written by a group of private citizens (well for the most part and certainly acting as such) as a statement of belief and philosophy trying to incite revolt against a sitting government by their fellow citizens.

The Constitution was written by a sitting goveernment 11 years later in order to establish the law of the land for the country that that group of rebels had managed to create.

The Consitution, for obvious reasons, can and does only apply to citizens of that country. The Declaration of Independence makes sweeping statments about the state of the human race. The failure of people to understand these simple facts leads to some of the more silly things said by both .us citizens and it's .gov. So this is an important point.

Now we could argue for a very long time about the intent of the framers. But the simple fact is that there is *no* legal basis for interfering with another country.

Note that I am, very much on purpose, remaining unclear on my thoughts on the subject of if we should or not. Now you could argue that the founding fathers felt that these rights should be universal, based on the Declaration of Independence, but you would also have to agree that they were smart enough to leave that out of law.

Re:This is BS

[SquadBoy]

OK. Here are their choices. Have *no* official presence in China at all. Or filter results and *tell* people when and how those results have been filtered. Keep in mind that every other search engine filters results and does not say word one to their customers in China about it.

So do you *really* think it would be better for them to pull out and leave China to Yahoo?

So yeah. They have shaken hands with the Devil and have gotten a bit dirty. Welcome to the real world where compromise is a fact of life. I, for one, think they have made the right choice and have done everything they can to keep the damage to a minimum.

So here is what I propose. Let's get over ourselves give them credit where credit is due and start workin on realistic ways to help citizens of the PRC route around their .gov like the damage it is and get access to google and the rest of the net without any filtering. Education about ways to bypass firewalls/proxies. Open proxies set up to allow them access. These kinds of things. We *know* how to do this stuff. I've been doing my best for citizens of a different regime for the last couple of years and it is possible. Hard but possible. But it can *not* be done by Google. It has to be done by private citizens.

So take the outrage and anger you feel. These are good things and give you strength. Direct them where they need to be directed, at the PRC .gov, and do what you can to help.