Google says it is no longer willing to censor search results in China, and is considering closing its offices due to a cyber-security attack.
Google
is mulling the idea of shutting down its operations in China
amid concerns about a cyber-attack and repeated efforts
to access the Gmail accounts of Chinese activists.
Google
Chief Legal Officer David Drummond in a blog post Jan. 12 said
Google
is no longer willing to censor results on Google.cn, and "will be
discussing with the Chinese government" whether or not the company can
"operate an unfiltered search engine within the law" in the weeks
ahead.
Google's
threat to end its operations in China
is the culmination of several incidents, and comes a day after the search
engine found itself embroiled in a controversy about the scanning of books by
Chinese
authors into Google Books. According to Drummond, Google in mid-December
uncovered "a highly sophisticated and targeted attack ... originating from
China that
resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google."
Google's
investigation found that at least 20 other companies in a variety of sectors
had been "similarly targeted," wrote Drummond, who is also senior
vice president of corporate development at Google. "We are currently in
the process of notifying those companies, and we are also working with the relevant
U.S.
authorities."
Drummond
continued:
"Second, we have evidence to suggest
that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of
Chinese human rights activists. Based on our investigation to date we believe
their attack did not achieve that objective. Only two Gmail accounts appear to
have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such
as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content
of emails themselves.
"Third, as part of this investigation
but independent of the attack on Google, we have discovered that the accounts
of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of
human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties. These
accounts have not been accessed through any security breach at Google, but most
likely via phishing scams or malware placed on the users' computers."
The
allegations of the attacks and surveillance are just the latest incident in a
sometimes controversial relationship between Google and China.
Since it launched in 2006, Google.cn has periodically been a source
of criticism for free-speech advocates. John Simpson, consumer advocate with
Consumer Watchdog, said Google should be applauded for taking a stance against
censorship.
"While
Google should never have agreed to
censor
search results in China in the first place, it is doing the right thing by
ending the practice now," Simpson said. "The company should be
commended."
Drummond
said despite the announcement the company is committed to working to resolve
the issues at hand.
"The
decision to review our business operations in China
has been incredibly hard, and we know that it will have potentially
far-reaching consequences," Drummond wrote. "We want to make clear
that this move was driven by our executives in the United
States, without the knowledge or involvement
of our employees in China
who have worked incredibly hard to make Google.cn the success it is
today."
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