Yesterday, Google posted an announcement on their blog that sent ripples throughout the tech world with far reach implications into areas such as politics and finance. The blog post informed the public that Google had been the victim of an organized cyber attack originating from China. Their investigation revealed that they were not alone in this attack but around 20 companies were victims in the breach. Google stated that the evidence shows the perpetrators were interested in accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. While Google does not explicitly state that this attack was coordinated by the Chinese government, the blog post makes Google's perspective on the matter quite clear. Google has decided to stop the censorship search results on Google.cn, a compromise which was previously made to the Chinese government in order to operate in China. In the post, Google states that it is well aware that this action may mean having to shutdown Google.cn and its offices in China, which represents the world's largest population of internet users. After the news the stock of Baidu, Google's biggest competitor in China, went up 7% in after hours trading, while Google's stock fell around 2%.
What do you guys think about this news? On one hand Google pushes forward modern corporate responsibility in sticking to the "Do No Evil" motto. But then again Google may lose a substantial source of internet users. Which is the greater evil for the citizens of China, the censorship of search results, or internet accessibility without Google.cn?
The actual Google blog post can be located here:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html
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ReplyDeleteCurious language in the last line there, Guo. It hints at an interesting mental model. The word location implies a physical space, but the blog is just bits of 1's and 0's in a server somewhere. I think it's natural to think of web pages as locations, destinations for us when we're surfing the web. It could make for an interesting browser concept-mapping webpages to images of physical spaces. I bet you could create a pretty fun internet experience if you could visualize it well.
ReplyDeleteNick: http://xkcd.com/195/
ReplyDeleteI think that this says a lot about the ethics of Google. It is admirable that they took this decision even though they know that are going to lose hundreds or maybe millions of customers in China, therefore decreasing their sales exponentially. By taking harsh measures, Google is acting against cyber attacks in general and sending a clear message to the world. Google has to show the world that they are on top of all the security issues related to gmail accounts because otherwise people would stop trusting them.
ReplyDeleteThe Company has evidence that suggests that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. This is very dangerous and it gives the world a clear threatening message. Google needs to act now in order to stop these kinds of cyber attacks.
I believe that we need more companies in the world which follow their mission statement as closely as Google does. We need more companies that think about profits while having ethics always in their minds. Money is not all; we live in a world of competition and innovation, be we also live in a world that needs honesty and peace. So yes, I believe that Google made a great decision by showing the world that they will take whatever measure is needed for the safety of their customer's accounts. They could lose millions of customers in China but I personally think that other customers around the world will become more loyal to Google.
I forgot to answer the main question: Which is the greater evil for the citizens of China, the censorship of search results, or internet accessibility without Google.cn?
I personally think that internet accessibility without Google.cn would have more impact on the Chinese population. If the information is censored, they wouldn't know what they would be missing because they do not about it. On the other hand, they do know how life is with access to any website and information in the world with Google.cn and the love it…
I thought that the repercussions for Motorola that Tim Goodall mentioned in Professor Brown's class the other week were very interesting. If google boycotts China, none of the Android phones that Motorola has put so much development time and money into can be released. It's very interesting to look at how much one decision on google's part can affect so much. I can only imagine what else Google's pulling out changes for other companies.
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