The search engine that Google would launch in China would link users’ searches to their phone numbers.
Google is entering dangerous terrain, and it is that at the beginning of August the information emerged that the company was developing a censored search engine for China, which would mean his return to the Asian country after eight years of leaving it. A juicy market of more than 800 million users, but first, to have access to them they will have to meet the demands of the Chinese government.
The project is known as’Dragonfly‘and today new details have emerged from The Intercept, where they ensure that this search engine will have the ability to link searches with users’ phone numbers. This would allow the Chinese government to monitor the inquiries of each of its citizens in detail.
Big Brother is learning to speak Chinese
Since the existence of this ‘Dragonfly’ search engine became known, all kinds of criticism and even questions from the United States government have arisen. And it is that if confirmed, Google would be contributing directly to the practices of the Chinese government, something that would go against what Human Rights dictate.
What is known so far about ‘Dragonfly’ is that it would be designed for Android devices and would remove all content considered “sensitive or prohibited” by the Communist Regime of China. That is, it would be a censored search engine where those topics that go against the government would not be available.
Google is said to have compiled a blacklist of terms ordered by the Chinese government, such as “human rights”, “student protest”, “Nobel Prize”, as well as information on political dissidents, freedom of expression, democracy and everything related to peaceful protests.
Today, new details suggest that the first prototype of ‘Dragonfly’ also links the search app on the Android smartphone with the user’s phone number. This would mean that people’s individual searches could be easily trackedSo any user looking for government-banned information could be at risk of questioning or arrest, as law enforcement agencies would be in a position to ask Google for search logs at any time.
It was also announced that the ‘Dragonfly’ operation would be carried out by Google and a company based in China, whose data is unknown. According to people close to the project, this company would have the ability to update the lists of prohibited terms, which would mean that Google would not have control over censorship in its search engine.
And if that was not enough, there are also details that speak of that in this search engine weather data could be modified, which would be provided by an “unidentified source” based in Beijing and not by Google. In fact, they point out that Google designed ‘Dragonfly’ so that it is the Chinese government who manipulates the details about pollution in its cities. That is, the search engine would show false data or information where the amount of toxins in the air and their risks are minimized.
Until now Google has neither confirmed nor denied the existence of ‘Dragonfly’, or your collaboration or links with the Chinese government for the development of this search engine. The only answer we have obtained is that they do not comment on “speculation about future plans.” In fact, they have not commented anything publicly about ‘Dragonfly’.
Meanwhile, Jack Poulson, a former research scientist at Google, mentioned to The Intercept that he was one of about five employees who had quit the company due to ‘Dragonfly’ plans. His resignation letter reads: “I see our intention to give in to the demands of censorship and surveillance in exchange for access to the Chinese market as a loss of our values and government negotiating position around the world.”
In Engadget | Google believed that the internet would change China, now it is considering accepting censorship and control to access its market
