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Google censors itself for China; Google is no hero
Topic Started: Jan 25 2006, 10:09 AM (297 Views)
maple
Junior Carp
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4645596.stm

"Leading internet company Google has said it will censor its search services in China in order to gain greater access to China's fast-growing market."

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AlbertaCrude
Bull-Carp
Any offshore company that opens a representative or subsidiary office overseas is obliged to act in accordance to the laws of the territory in which it is operating. In this case Google's Chinese susidiary is obliged to operate according to the laws of China.
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Nina
Senior Carp
Of course, but Google didn't get all principled about censoring when it meant gaining greater access to China's huge market.

Only when given a fed subpoena. I don't know the details, to be sure. But it sure sounds like Google's actions in refusing the turn over data were possibly as much motivated by P.R. as by any privacy principle.

Nothing like a good David and Goliath story.
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dolmansaxlil
Member Avatar
HOLY CARP!!!
I really do think they are seperate issues. I don't think the Chinese government is claiming that the people in China have the same levels of freedoms that the US government claims their people have. Google is owned by Americans, is it not? It would make sense that they are a bit more touchy about protecting their own freedoms than they are about protecting the freedoms of another country - especially since those freedoms aren't guaranteed there.
"Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst." ~ Henri Cartier-Bresson

My Flickr Photostream


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AlbertaCrude
Bull-Carp
Nina posted
 
Of course, but Google didn't get all principled about censoring when it meant gaining greater access to China's huge market.


Of course Nina. That's international business. US and Canadian oil and gas equipment suppliers were falling all over themselves to engage accredited agents through whom to submit UNSCOM approved tenders in the Oil for Food Program too.
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maple
Junior Carp
AC, agree on all points.
Google is no different than any other big public company: they will go after maximum profit using all means legally available. Their "image" as always having noble intentions & actions is unjustified.
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Axtremus
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HOLY CARP!!!
What would you rather see happen?

1. Let Microsoft, Yahoo, and some Chinese companies have the Chinese market -- do you expect any of them to be any more mindful about their Chinese users/customers' freedom of speech and privacy concerns,

OR

2. Let Google continue to do what it does.

There is no viable third choice. (If you think there is, go make that third choice happen and you'll make a fortune bigger than Google's.)

Just pick the lesser evil.
And for that, I pick Google.
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maple
Junior Carp
I don't think Google is less evil than Yahoo or Microsoft.
They all want and do the same thing: try to make as much money as possible. The rest is marketing.
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Ben
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Senior Carp
Google has to be less evil than Microsoft.

You must not have tried Google Earth. :woot:
- Ben

"Playing 'bop' is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing." - Duke Ellington

bennieloohoo@gmail.com
Or you can just PM me. :P
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DivaDeb
HOLY CARP!!!
I love Google Earth. We live in an area where the detail is pretty...freaky. But I still think it's cool.
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Ben
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Senior Carp
Ours is blurry. But we're so close to the detailed area that my church is in it.
- Ben

"Playing 'bop' is like playing Scrabble with all the vowels missing." - Duke Ellington

bennieloohoo@gmail.com
Or you can just PM me. :P
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Nina
Senior Carp
Google's corporate motto is: "Do no evil." Seriously.
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JBryan
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I am the grey one
Sounds familiar. I have a little bone carving I bought in Hong Kong that displays not three monkeys but four. The three familiar ones are there with one each having hands over eyes, ears and mouth. The fourth has its hands over its crotch and is called "do no evil". Google is obviously covering its crotch.
"Any man who would make an X rated movie should be forced to take his daughter to see it". - John Wayne


There is a line we cross when we go from "I will believe it when I see it" to "I will see it when I believe it".


Henry II: I marvel at you after all these years. Still like a democratic drawbridge: going down for everybody.

Eleanor: At my age there's not much traffic anymore.

From The Lion in Winter.
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Nina
Senior Carp
:D :D :D
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AlbertaCrude
Bull-Carp
JBryan
Jan 25 2006, 07:56 PM
Sounds familiar. ...Google is obviously covering its crotch.

Or as they said in the halcyon days of Gorbachev's USSR, engaging in *mutually beneficial cooperation* with their Chinese state partners.
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