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Google's Moves Chinese Search Records So They Can Be Subpoenaed By The US

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the out-of-the-frying-pan... dept

Wed, Mar 1st 2006 4:19pm — Mike Masnick
If you were Google, where would you store your Chinese search data these days? As just about everyone knows, Google made the move into China recently with a somewhat scaled down (read: censored) version, leading to a bit of controversy. With Yahoo getting slammed for giving up info to the Chinese government, leading to the arrest of some political dissidents, it would appear that Google has begun to rethink where they should keep their Chinese search engine data. It looks like Google has gone with a compromise route, and is moving all of its Chinese search data out of China and into the US -- which still raises some questions. After all, it was just this week that the US Department of Justice claimed that no one should worry when it subpoenas search terms from Google here in the US -- something Google has fought vehemently. Perhaps the next suggestion would be for them to move the US data into China. Then everyone can subpoena whoever they want, and Google can claim the data is out of the country and they can't do anything about it. Wouldn't that solve everything?
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20 Comments

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  • identicon
    Deathlike, 1 Mar 2006 @ 6:07pm

    Or..

    They relocate all of their data - including the search data and the "world's information" they're always talking about - into Antarctica. The place has no real government, except that everyone and no one can use it/own it. The information can't be subpoena'ed out of their hands, and it'd give the penguins something to do. Google has the money to train soldier-technician penguins, right?

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Jay, 1 Mar 2006 @ 6:19pm

      Re: Or..

      Sorry, they already have pigeons for that. I don't think they'll be substituting them for penguins any time soon.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      ElectricMayhem, 1 Mar 2006 @ 6:19pm

      Re: Or..

      Quite.....given the net worth of this company....they could buy an island somewhere nice and cozy....declare it Googleland, run the business from there and no one could touch them...not even the Chinese......Bush and Connie Rice would threaten to nuke 'em so no change there then!!!! and they could have competitions for a break or something.....imagine....a weeks break in the sun having fun surrounded by all the worlds information...wow

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Arochone, 1 Mar 2006 @ 6:27pm

      Re: Or..

      If google moved their data to Antarctica, I would bow down and devote my life to them.

      And there's one other benifit...you won't need as much cooling. I mean, that many servers has gotta use a lotta power on cooling fans...

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        JR, 1 Mar 2006 @ 9:19pm

        Re: Or..

        Isn't that what they tried to do with Sealand? I seem to recall an article in Wired a few years back about an unused North Sea oil-rig pylon that somebody occupied and declared a nation.

        I really do like the data haven idea. Something right out of Cryptonomicon.

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          ElectricMayhem, 2 Mar 2006 @ 1:50am

          Re: Or..

          Thank you JR......at least someone got it......
          Listen up Guys......this kind of discussion is basically mental masturbation.....whatever Google started out trying to do got usurped by the lust for money.....money corrupts and countless billions corrupts and distorts.....

          If you want to have a meaningful discussion, debate the motion that no company or corporation can make profits of more than say 25% of its combined workforce salary....and that all profits over and above this amount be put into a large pot and distributed every year at christmas (or your religion's equivalent) to every man and woman on the planet.

          [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      strangeion, 1 Mar 2006 @ 6:30pm

      Re: Or..

      Actually Google is already in Antartica. Their secret world headquarters is located deep under the ice and the bioengineered clones of Sergey and Larry are in stasis until Google is ready for their takeover of the entire world!

      Any how, why hasn't Google already declared itself a country?

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      me, 1 Mar 2006 @ 7:09pm

      Re: Or..

      Oooooo... Penguins.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      KronicD, 2 Mar 2006 @ 2:03am

      Re: Or..

      You can view the territorial claims that have been made on antarctica here

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anwar, 2 Mar 2006 @ 4:01am

        Re: Or..

        Think of it this way, now Americans can not be done in America for searching for kiddy porn by asking for Google's search records for that person.

        China arnt as likely to want someones search history (except for a certain bush led administration's IP ranges) and visa versa.

        So yes the general public is a bit more happy, but you dont understand that they do get to make a nice little bit for it in return.

        Where was google retistered as its main headquaters? because if im not mistaken mmost countries can get the information from any of the branches if they ask for it when the main registration is there.

        So Americans arnt completely out of the loop there.

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Jacob, 1 Mar 2006 @ 6:29pm

    What people don't get is...

    What people don't understand though is that Google gave into the Chinese because its the law
    and a communist nation so they didn't have much of a choice whereas here in the U.S., Google
    has the right to fight for their civil liberties
    so stop bashing Google!

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Rikko, 1 Mar 2006 @ 7:00pm

      Re: What people don't get is...

      What people don't understand though is that Google gave into the Chinese because its the law
      and a communist nation so they didn't have much of a choice whereas here in the U.S., Google
      has the right to fight for their civil liberties
      so stop bashing Google!

      Have you actually read and understood why Google is under fire from all sides for doing this, or did you just read the Google Blog and give them the nod of approval?

      It's blatant money hunger, not the path of "least evil" that they want to tout. I have no issue with money being the bottom line. I do have an issue with all this presumptuous bullshit trying to pretend that's not the bottom line.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Andyware, 2 Mar 2006 @ 1:28am

        Re: What people don't get is...

        It's blatant money hunger, not the path of "least evil" that they want to tout. I have no issue with money being the bottom line. I do have an issue with all this presumptuous bullshit trying to pretend that's not the bottom line. I missed the part where Google was pretending it wasn't the bottom line. Boy, Google should really be ashamed for ever making a profitable decision! How could they!!

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        laurent, 3 Mar 2006 @ 1:16am

        Re: What people don't get is...

        I think a lot of what you see as presumtpuous bullshit is in fact projection.
        A lot of people place unrealistic expectations on entities outside of themselves,
        looking for a saviour or whatever, and then turn vicious when they are disappointed.
        As near as I can tell, Google did a cost/benefit analysis of their involvement with China
        that included moral and social accounting far beyond what any other company that size would even consider.

        Did they make a decision you were happy with? Obviously not.
        Should Google act so as to always confirm your prejudices and illusions about how the world should work? No.
        Did Google make the right choice? We'll see.

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        petersrule, 3 Mar 2006 @ 2:01am

        Re: What people don't get is...

        You are a moron. You know nothing about business or technology

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Mike (profile), 1 Mar 2006 @ 7:11pm

      Re: What people don't get is...

      What people don't understand though is that Google gave into the Chinese because its the law
      and a communist nation so they didn't have much of a choice whereas here in the U.S., Google
      has the right to fight for their civil liberties
      so stop bashing Google!

      We've gone over this about fifty times, so I'm surprised it's still coming up... but... for the new folks...

      People aren't upset that Google gave in. They're upset that Google gave in after talking about how they never would give in. It's that they went back on their word -- their word that gave them a lot of goodwill.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Chris H, 1 Mar 2006 @ 8:48pm

    No Subject Given

    Or... Google could take their entire operation offshore and let out a resounding, "Fuck you America! You just lost the millions in taxes, any chance of getting the data, any chance of penalizing us for doing business with China, and all the primary and secondary jobs related to Google... PLUS we just saved a ton of money on car insurance by switching to Geico!".

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Chinese man, 2 Mar 2006 @ 12:24am

    How about USA data then?

    All search data of USA the should be moved to China. Doesn't it?

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    petersrule, 3 Mar 2006 @ 1:59am

    Stupid people

    Understand a few things. Because you don't live here in China you don't understand how things work and actually I know someone that works for google here in Beijing. First off China has a big firewall that blocks certain sites. So Google has offered a search engine that doesn't return empty links for Chinese users. Google in no was is censoring. So don't get your panties in a bind over trivial stuff. Chinese users can still go to the english site www.google.com but that will give them undesirable empty links. So google did this to gain more of the market share in China because their local competitor www.baidu.com still has a big portion of the market. Next all search info and email accounts are kept on servers in the US so only after getting a supoena can someone access the info. If it was kept in China, the government could access it whenever they felt like. So Google is doing this for security reasons. You should be happy about it.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Mike Smith, 15 Mar 2006 @ 5:20am

    Search Records

    Delete

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]


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