Senior Google Scientist Resigns over Chinese ‘Dragonfly’ Search Engine Censorship and Data Collection

Pixabay
Jack Poulson, a senior Google research scientist, quit the company in protest over its plan to censor its search engine in China. The search system, code-named Dragonfly, was designed to remove content that China’s government views as sensitive, such as information about political dissidents, free speech, democracy, human rights, and peaceful protest. He also is concerned over hosting customer data on the Chinese mainland, where it would be accessible to Chinese security agencies that are well-known for targeting political activists and journalists. He is surprised that more of the company’s employees have not quit over Dragonfly and at how little solidarity there is on censorship and monitoring the public.

A senior Google research scientist has quit the company in protest over its plan to launch a censored version of its search engine in China.

Jack Poulson worked for Google’s research and machine intelligence department, where he was focused on improving the accuracy of the company’s search systems.

In early August, Poulson raised concerns with his managers at Google after The Intercept revealed that the internet giant was secretly developing a Chinese search app for Android devices. The search system, code-named Dragonfly, was designed to remove content that China’s authoritarian government views as sensitive, such as information about political dissidents, free speech, democracy, human rights, and peaceful protest.

After entering into discussions with his bosses, Poulson decided in mid-August that he could no longer work for Google. He tendered his resignation and his last day at the company was August  31.  

He told The Intercept in an interview that he believes he is one of about five of the company’s employees to resign over Dragonfly. He felt it was his “ethical responsibility to resign in protest of the forfeiture of our public human rights commitments,” he said.

Poulson, who was previously an assistant professor at Stanford University’s department of mathematics, said he believed that the China plan had violated Google’s artificial intelligence principles, which state that the company will not design or deploy technologies “whose purpose contravenes widely accepted principles of international law and human rights.”

He said that he was concerned not just about the censorship itself, but also the ramifications of hosting customer data on the Chinese mainland, where it would be accessible to Chinese security agencies that are well-known for targeting political activists and journalists.

In his resignation letter, Poulson told his bosses: “Due to my conviction that dissent is fundamental to functioning democracies, I am forced to resign in order to avoid contributing to, or profiting from, the erosion of protection for dissidents.”

“I view our intent to capitulate to censorship and surveillance demands in exchange for access to the Chinese market as a forfeiture of our values and governmental negotiating position across the globe,” he wrote, adding: “There is an all-too-real possibility that other nations will attempt to leverage our actions in China in order to demand our compliance with their security demands.”

I am forced to resign in order to avoid contributing to, or profiting from, the erosion of protection for dissidents.

In the six weeks since the revelations about Dragonfly, Google has still not publicly addressed concerns about the project, despite facing a major backlash internally and externally. Earlier this month, Google CEO Sundar Pichai refused to appear at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, where he would have been asked questions about the China censorship. The company has ignored dozens of questions from journalists about the plan and it has stonewalled leading human rights groups, who say that the censored search engine could result in the company “directly contributing to, or [becoming] complicit in, human rights violations.” (Google also did not respond to an inquiry for this story.)

Poulson, 32, who began working for Google in May 2016, told The Intercept that the company’s public silence fueled his sense of frustration. “There are serious worldwide repercussions to this,” he said. “What are Google’s ethical red lines? We already wrote some down, but now we seem to be crossing those. I would really like to see statements about what Google’s commitments are.”

Google launched a censored search engine in China in 2006, but stopped operating the service in the country in 2010, citing Chinese government efforts to limit free speech, block websites, and hack people’s Gmail accounts. At that time, Google co-founder Sergey Brin made clear that he was strongly opposed to the censorship. Brin had spent part of his childhood in the Soviet Union, and said that he was “particularly sensitive to the stifling of individual liberties” due to his family’s experiences there. In 2010, after the company pulled its search engine out of China, Brin told the Wall Street Journal that “with respect to censorship, with respect to surveillance of dissidents” he saw “earmarks of totalitarianism [in China], and I find that personally quite troubling.”

Poulson said that he “very much agree[s] with the case Sergey made in 2010. That’s the company I joined, the one that was making that statement.” If the anti-censorship stance is shifting, he said, then he could no longer “be complicit as a shareholder and citizen of the company.”

Read full article here…

 

 

Visit our Classified ads.

Check out our Classified ads at the bottom of this page.

Recent stories & commentary

Classified Ads

The appearance of ads on this site does not signify endorsement by the publisher. We cannot vouch for accuracy of statements or integrity of advertisers. We will investigate complaints, however, and remove any message we find to be misleading or that promotes anything fraudulent or unethical.
For ad rates, click here.

Health

The Heavenly Handbook of Health. “WOW! U want FeedBack? So far I am floored. If I’ve learned anything about you since we met; this book has the potential to be a blockbuster.” Read 18pg Teaser @ HeavenlyHandbookofHealth.com Simple, incredible, affordable health – any age!



JWLABS – Building fine Rife frequency instruments in the USA since 1987.
We offer customer support and an exceptional warranty. Learn why all households and clinics should employ this device. Call us at 888-891-1122 to discuss the many benefits.   www.rifemachine.com



Learn Natural Medicine practice at home! There is NO Freedom without Health Freedom. There is NO Health Freedom without Informed, Voluntary Consent. There is no informed consent without education and understanding. American College of Natural Medicine, Thai Yoga Center provides you and your family with spiritually based natural health education. ThaiYogaCenter.Com or https://naic-edu.org


G. Edward Griffin’s blood pressure dropped to healthy levels and stayed there after using Cardio Miracle, a nitric-oxide booster containing a blend of ingredients that supports the body’s natural defense against heart disease, atherosclerosis, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimers, and more. If you are over 40, you really should check this out.



Health with space-age technology and Quantum physics. For people and all animals. No medication! Available world wide! Contact us at [email protected]. For principals and testimonials please visit our website. www.Healthytherapy.com


Income


Ultimate Wealth Building Guide reveals 5 steps to create your own banking system to achieve lifetime financial security, certainty, and peace of mind in 60 days. Discover how to build and grow lasting wealth safely and predictably, regardless of market and economic cycles. www.mywealthwarehouse.com



Are you ready for financial freedom?
Visit:  www.MoneyThatsReal.com


Make money on money you are already spending. Join the world’s largest shopping network. Eleven-year-old company in 46 countries. Info and free membership. www.freedombuildersinternational.com



Free Report: Three Major Shifts That Signal Risks to Your Investments Are Headed Higher. Including the one action every investor should take right now to protect their portfolio against significantly rising risks. http://BuyAndStoreGold.com/pl-geg/


Money & Banking


Lawful 100% income tax avoidance: a right recognized by IRS and Supreme Court. Request free report: [email protected] or find NoThanksIRS on FB/Twitter.


Need to Know


Being informed is not enough. Knowledge, by itself, is not power, but it holds the potential for power if used as a guide for action. Truth can be overpowered by tyranny only if we fail to enter the battle. The future belongs, not to ideas, but to people who act on those ideas. If you truly want to make a difference in the world, Freedom Force International awaits you.



Anxiety Publishing – providing more satisfying novels to the conscious community, stories based in a real world, not the illusion of the establishment. Promote your precious novel with your fellow authors and help build a collection of future classics. anxietypub.com


For Sale


Offline is a documentary on the inevitability of the Earth being slammed by a mega solar flare – not the common type that interrupts communications and creates a light show in the Northern skies – but the big brothers thousands of times more powerful. These monsters deliver enough energy to blow apart the master transformers that supply the planet’s energy grids. When that happens, the lights go out for longer than anyone wants to think about. These X-Class solar storms hit the Earth every 150 years, on average. The last one arrived 156 years ago. We are overdue (More)

 


Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments