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Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After Internal Confrontation

theintercept.com

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Re: Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After Internal Confrontation

#241

Post by BurningFrog »

anonymouzz wrote: post #158
burtonator wrote: post #148

True story... I run a web crawling company named Datastreamer where we license data to social media monitoring firms. We're very white hat... Don't even like to mess around with grey hat areas as we don't want something like the Cambridge Analytica situation coming back to bite us in the ass. About 1.5 years ago we were contacted by a 3rd party firm which we eventually found out was a cut out for Saudi Arabia. The de…

Perhaps I'm taking the moral high ground here, but you should contact the media or human rights organizations, spill the beans to help them investigate. Anonymously if necessary.

I suppose you could, but it's hardly news that Saudi Arabia is deeply repressive regime.

Re: Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After Internal Confrontation

#242

Post by praptak »

jeron wrote: post #173
redisman wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too bad there are so many people like Manafort who are happy to take on that job for a quick buck. Sure people are being hunted down but check out the ostrich jacket!

for every company that refuses, there'll be one that will take it on for the right price...

This is both true and a shitty excuse.

Re: Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After Internal Confrontation

#243

Post by raincom »

randaouser wrote: post #240

I started working on fuzzy matching searchable encryption for this very reason; you can send an encrypted search term and match using jaccard similarity to an encrypted index of similar documents without information leakage of the search query or the encrypted document. This is the state of the art at the moment and would be useful for such things as: 1)Private search over encrypted documents 2)getting your FICO scor…

is it related to homomorphic encryption?

Re: Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After Internal Confrontation

#244

Post by kmlx »

sonnyblarney wrote: post #120
QML wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since you are one of the few people who support a re-entry of Google into China, can I ask a question? There is no doubt that a cultural gap exists between Chinese and Americans, and their perceptions of the current Chinese government. Should a foreign company like Google adopt the culture of the country they're entering, or maintain the culture of where they're headquartered? From what I've read, the main opposition…

This is an unfair argument because it's not a matter of 'culture' it's a broader set of ethical issues at stake. The Chinese are putting people into concentration camps on the basis of their ethnicity or religion, many are dying and their organs are being harvested. If the Western press weren't so hypocritically afraid of speaking out - this would be a huge global story, it's a really big deal. This is getting into h…

The American Government is putting brown children in concentration camps, separating them from their parents, and killing some of them in the process.

If I was American I would be ashamed to comment on human rights abuses.

Re: Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After Internal Confrontation

#245

Post by reimertz »

fipple wrote: post #221
redisman wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too bad there are so many people like Manafort who are happy to take on that job for a quick buck. Sure people are being hunted down but check out the ostrich jacket!

Evil is more banal than that. I have no ostrich jacket but I’d create a spying tool for an authoritarian government for the right price. For me it would be about $5-10 million.

Why?

Re: Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After Internal Confrontation

#246

Post by xfs »

manfredo wrote: post #231
jjcc wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your understanding of this issue is much better than many HNers on the reason why the "concentration camp" exist. Most HNers get all information from West Media with many convincing "evidence" with map and photo analysis. That's why you "appall". However, there are other sources of information selectively filtered by media. For example,here's a story of a famous Uhigyr celebrity went back to her alma mater (in Chines…

You're omitting the most plausible explanation: 3. They are disgusted by the camps, but they know if they speak out they'll end up inside one. China keeps a tight leash on its celebrities. The government is willing to make even internationally famous ones like Fan Bing Bing disappear for months without explanation. It probably wouldn't take much to make one of the Uhigyr celebrities you mention disappear permanently.…

Empathy is unnecessary in this case. I would frame it as entertaining a thought without accepting it, as in Aristotle's educated mind.

Moralizing is an easy to way to stop thinking and settle in a comfortable narrative, a cop-out so one can avoid questioning their own ideological identities. The thirst for a comfortable narrative is so strong today few can resist it, which almost looks like we live in an era when we can no longer afford entertaining different thoughts.

Re: Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After Internal Confrontation

#247

Post by bad_user »

rqs wrote: post #233
freewizard wrote: post #63

AFAICT the way Dragonfly utilizing search log to probe Great Fire Wall blacklist and skip them in results was the same way how google.cn (localized Google search in china) worked. That was a smart but arguable approach, Google was heavily criticized to present those "passively censored" results. However, no one from Google at that time did a #walkout or resign for that. Also notably Google did not quit China for the…

> Google employee did become more active on these issues which I think is progressive. Because the world is changing. The concern around privacy and censorship hasn't reached that level back in 2006 (Mainly because most westerners hasn't been effected by it, funny). The situation today is much different now. BUT, I don't think this will be a easy battle. Many people on Slashdot don't even believe Google will just sto…

> Many people on Slashdot

Because Slashdot is a good source for unbiased opinions :-)

Re: Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After Internal Confrontation

#248

Post by ngcc_hk »

freewizard wrote: post #63

AFAICT the way Dragonfly utilizing search log to probe Great Fire Wall blacklist and skip them in results was the same way how google.cn (localized Google search in china) worked. That was a smart but arguable approach, Google was heavily criticized to present those "passively censored" results. However, no one from Google at that time did a #walkout or resign for that. Also notably Google did not quit China for the…

Seems the reply is not on the thread about log search and find people. It is not what you not see is the problem. It is the question you have asked that may get you if the log is “hacked”, shared or sold ultimately to the state. Or like apple have to relocate their data centre to compile with the laws.

And if you are on the wrong side of the current political regime ....

It is not just freedom to read but the protection of you against a totalitarian regime that worry us. Especially if you think it is safe to ask to google.cn

Re: Google’s Secret China Project “Effectively Ended” After Internal Confrontation

#249

Post by kmlx »

abc-xyz wrote: post #205
burtonator wrote: post #147

These ethical dilemmas are really confusing for me. One one had I don't want to be part of this type of behavior but it's just going to give China the opportunity to fund a Google competitor to do it for them... I think it's lose/lose for Google.

It really shouldn't be a dilemma unless you're morally bankrupt. Would you sell a gun to a Neo-Nazi that you knew intended to use it to murder innocent people? After all if you refused (and continued to do nothing to stop him) then he would just buy from your competitor.

Well, considering the fact that America as a whole is morally bankrupt (by imprisoning reporters, black and brown people, and concentration camps full of kids), I’d say the attack against Google is a coordinated manoeuvre.
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