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Away with your conscience: Project Dragonfly

2010 was a special year: Google voluntarily gave up money. After Chinese censorship authorities had tightened the thumbscrews, the US company faced the consequences and withdrew from the Chinese market, leaving the field to their competitors. This also meant services like Gmail, Google Drive or Playstore were no longer welcome in the Middle Kingdom. This move earned Google a lot of respect, further underpinning their "Don't be evil" mentality and their quest for freedom of information. Eight years later, both their noble mindset and scruples have seemingly gone up in smoke. Enter Dragonfly!

Heading east

It's 2018 and Google are once again heading far east, though the company won't publicly admit it yet. The fear of a veritable shitstorm is just too great. Still, based on various sources (including Google employees), signs are increasing that Android will be the first to adapt to the new strategy. "Project Dragonfly" stands for a development project that seeks to implement a search engine fully compliant with Chinese censorship regulations. And Google are making every effort to block egregious search terms like "human rights", "student protests" or "Nobel Prize". Conveniently, search requests are also automatically linked with phone numbers to make personal identification easier for government authorities. Set up as a joint venture with a local business man, Google are now poised to toe the party line to a T. Chinese state authorities could even feed them blocking lists at leisure - we might be witnessing the birth of a new business model specifically tailored to the needs of dictatorships all over the world!

Back in 2010, things couldn't have been more different. Google had allegedly been hacked by the Chinese, Google and 20 associated companies to be precise. The goal: gaining access to email accounts from human rights activists and China-critical websites. Google refused and fought back. Today, they'd certainly come to an agreement! I can somewhat understand their motive: As a manager, the knowledge that someone else is making money probably hurts excruciatingly. And reading about the massive profits of Baidu, Tencent QQ and Weibo, how the majority of the Chinese population couldn't care less about data privacy or how the government graciously funds mass face recognition must sound like paradise to Google! But it's not going to be that easy. The Cyberspace Administration of China, also responsible for the "Great Firewall of China", doesn't really need Google any more. While China lacked a comparable search engine in 2010, today, they've caught up and are perfectly capable of creating their own search technology. Besides, local search businesses are eager to cooperate with the authorities, making sure the money doesn't leave the country - so what do they need Google for?

Ready to leap over the Great Wall Ready to leap over the Great Wall

We'll likely never find out what exactly Google will offer to regain access to the Chinese market. Still, it might be time to ask ourselves how far they are willing to go in the interest of profit. Back in July, it took fierce debates to make Google executives understand that Google should refrain from further weaponizing AI. Maybe someone on the board had watched "Terminator"? The topic of surveillance was next, ending with Google vowing not to violate "internationally accepted norms". Furthermore, Google won't develop technologies that contravene "principles of international law and human rights". Oh what noble thoughts, it might be time for a Nobel Peace Prize! Maybe they could put out a press release along the lines of "Never fear, we haven't lost all of our senses yet!" every now and then. That would be equally comforting.

Luckily, common sense appears to be more prevalent in the lower ranks. Recent discussions about AI-augmented weapon systems saw over 4600 Google employees sign a petition to cease cooperation with the US military, with 13 outright quitting their jobs. Project Dragonfly now further adds to these tensions with, once again, some workers already having quit while others contacted the media. Nice to know a part of Google still has a conscience! But what if Dragonfly becomes a reality - and a success? Will we see government-approved derivatives of YouTube or Facebook currently unavailable in China? Will international news portals be censored and cut down to conform to whoever is in power at that time? It'll be exciting to see when Google will finally cast all qualms to the wind in pursuit of ever more lucrative business opportunities.

What do you think? How far should you go to cater to 800 million potential customers?

10 comments
  • L

    @Sven

    Sven Krumrey 2018/10/1608:50 am

    https://blog.ashampoo.com/en/2016-11-29/4-great-google-alternatives :)

    --------------------------------------

    Thanks, Sven. A very good post. :)

  • L

    @Zeljko Prezec

    Let's mention alternative search engines that don't track you or collect your data, just to get the death of Google started:

    https://www.qwant.com/

    https://duckduckgo.com/

    https://www.startpage.com/

    Startpage and Duckduckgo have been blocked in China for a while, and it seems that today Qwant is as well. Dodgy Bing works, probably because it has a Chinese version, so I guess it follows the "party" rule of law.

    It is the users that have to pull themselves away from their addiction to the companies that profit from personal data collection. It IS an addiction, so it may be a very long time before anything changes. Thankfully the EU have the right idea about data.

    If you want to get away from Windows, there's always Linux. The good news is that Linux has a windows compatibility layer called WINE that allows Software for Windows to run on it, but all Windows software works though.

  • C

    In a dog eat dog world it is a wise Chinese proverb not to wear milk bone underwear.

    Ultimate power corrupts ultimately and regardless of the best of intentions money always talks the loudest and more people listen.

    Is Skynet really that far off. Can't wait for two countries employee AI war fare to go after each other,

  • Z

    Less and less decent humans in today's world, and more and more profit-and-nothing-else behaviour you can find around every day.

    Each one of us contribute to that, as consumers, because too often we forget "The only rule" of profit : do not do, what hurts the profit !!!

    If we, as consumer, do not use/buy ANYTHING bad in this world, it dies quickly.

    If Google will start to help to unhuman dictators to violate "internationally accepted norms", and we still will use Google , each one of us, users, by continuing to use Google, will HELP THIS TO KEEP HAPPENING.

    If all of us consumers turn immediately, in such a case, to other engines, Google dies/closes its business very quickly. After that, no other provider will follow bad human practises.

    If all users would have close their Facebook pages recently, NO OTHER PROVIDER WOULD EVER FOLLOW practises of "selling users lives". Whoever did not close his page, supports this habbit to continue, in a different, more hidden manner (also showing to other providers that it is profitable). Don't you think it is correct that THE CONSUMER defines everything, The Good and The Bad? Best regards

  • D

    China is just the proving ground for what the Deep State has planned for the world as a whole. Google, Facistbook, Twittert and other should be strictly controlled.

  • K

    Google abandoned their "Don't Be Evil" motto a long time ago. They are now taking political stances and censoring or demonetizing YouTube videos that they disagree with. They claim to be for free speech, but only the free speech that they agree with.

  • S

    In the last -let's say 10 years, were so many leakage of private information and accounts from big companies, that makes me think it's a way to make people don't care about this-they must accept this risk from the beginning.

    If there are 2 sides,no matter what divide them: what is information for one can be desinformation for the other.So the on line space produce a"circle of truth"who never ever will compare with the same truth from a real community, with people interacting in all social ways. It's enough for one of them to make a joke or shake hands and any conflict will be gone.

    What I try to say with these 2 aspects is that there's no a "middle land"-what is real life is real and what is virtual is forever digital and we must assume the bigger risks in the future.

    All of this, because in the future more and more money will be made on line!

    Greetings from the bottom of my heart!

  • A

    Sven, you have not missed much by not being able to read Kampf. I did read it when I was young. I wanted to see why we had all the bomb sites in the Liverpool area. It is a load of C*** and me wonder why no one had sent him to a shrink instead of goal. He was clearly "not all there". Unfortunately there were enough like minded people that - for various reasons - tagged onto his coat tails and Germany went to Hell in a Handcart. I worry about what is going on these days and feel sorry for the younger generation that is going to have to pick up the pieces - assuming global warming does not get us first …

  • L

    As someone who is living in China, I can second you point about Chinese people not caring about privacy issues. Even in public, personal space can often be invaded, not to mention online. People post so much about themselves on platforms that collect data.

    I for one will not be using any Google crap in China, especially with it being tied to a phone number, and I'll be telling my students how bad Google is and to avoid it. The sad thing is that many things are tied to phone numbers here, and I to obtain a SIM card , you need an ID, so whatever you do is directly traceable.

    I suppose one way to avoid face recognition is to wear a log-peaked cap and sunglasses. Oh, I heard from some students that our school will be installing a system that detects when students are not paying attention to the teacher, and then reports that data. Sound more like a prison.

    I'm not so sure that YouTube would become as popular as it is elsewhere due to the massive availability of Video on Demand already established here.

  • m

    I think it's about military intelligence, the US through google wants access to Chinese information, and they see some military value in it.

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