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Google Moving PRC Records Out of China

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the covering-their-bases dept.

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.'"

4 of 267 comments (clear)

  1. why US? by joe+155 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    how can they know that the records won't be forced to be released in the US... I think it'd be best to go somewhere like switzerland, then it'd be safe, no one ever asks questions there

    --
    *''I can't believe it's not a hyperlink.''
  2. So...umm... by Gorm+the+DBA · · Score: 2, Interesting
    What's going to keep China from saying "Give us access to the records you've got stored in the US, or we're shutting your service down"?

    And will Google kowtow to that demand, or depart the largest potential growth market in the world these days?

    I do think the "Google has 47,000 other search results to your query, but to comply with laws, we have removed them from the results we're showing you" is a nice little thing though...we'll see how long that lasts.

  3. And what about Yahoo? by cyranose · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm pretty sure this google news is just a reannouncement, since privacy protection seemed to be the intent from the beginning--but they certainly did a horrible job on the PR...

    On the other hand, from what I hear, Yahoo! is still busy cooperating with China and landing dissidents in jail by releasing their "private" information. I must have missed the constant stream of /. front page stories about Yahoo! being evil, but the google ones have been just great!

  4. Re:One has to wonder by Not+The+Real+Me · · Score: 2, Interesting

    1. Your IP address is mostly irrelevant. All dialup users are on some form of DHCP so their IP address is not fixed. On a corporated WAN, laundromat or coffeeshop, one router can service hundreds of clients but to the web servers out there, they see one IP address only (NAT, look it up if you don't know what I'm talking about). In addition, people can use proxy servers to mask their IP address if they are trying to hide their real IP address. High anonymity proxy servers are the best. It's a great tool too use if certain web sites keep banning you.

    2. Your browser can be configured to tell the web server it is something that it is not. Opera browsers can tell the web server that they are Internet Explorer or Mozilla. So your browser identity is irrelevant as well. There are mini-proxy programs that you can install on your computer that will also scrub out your browser identity if you so desire.