Analysis: GOOG China Pull Out Might Be An Extension Of Its 'Borderless' Korean Policy
By Tom Foremski - January 13, 2010
Google's new found willingness to pull out of China because of hacking attempts by agents of the Chinese government doesn't make sense.
Why would the Chinese government seek information through hacking? It could give Google a legal order to divulge specific information and Google would comply, as it has done countless times in the past, not only in China but in other countries including the US.
Time and again Google's top executives have said they comply with all laws within each country.
Also, the hacking attempts were largely rebuffed. Google's security technology prevented the attackers from gaining much useful data.
David Drummond, SVP, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer reported:
Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves.
...accounts have not been accessed through any security breach at Google, but most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on the users' computers.
Leaving China does nothing to improve overall security, Google faces such attacks all the time, from every region.
The question remains is why now? Google could have taken a stand on human rights in China on many occasions in the past.
In a Tweet yesterday, Bobbie Johnson, a reporter for the UK based Guardian newspaper, pointed out:"Goog acted after its rights were infringed, not the rights of its users."
But even this doesn't explain why Google has found its backbone and made a stand now. It has to be because it has adopted a new policy, one that it tested last year in Korea.
And it's a policy in which Google is able to take advantage of the global nature of the Internet to thwart any national ambitions -- no matter how large.
We first saw this new policy at work last year in South Korea where the government has passed a new law that requires users posting video, or comments on large web sites to use their real names. Web site operators must collect and verify users names. The "real-name" law is designed to clamp down on government critics.
What did Google do? When the deadline arrived for the new law to be implemented, it blocked Korean users uploading videos or leaving comments on its Korean YouTube site. It told them to use YouTube sites in other countries.
[You can read my news report here: Google Is Facing Wrath Of Korean Government Over Snub Of Internet Law]
It neatly sidestepped the law by making use of the global nature of the Internet. It showed the limits of government power and its jurisdiction -- the Internet is global and beyond the reach of any one country.
Based on its Korean experience, Google is gaining in confidence that it can stick to its principles and stay clear of any repressive government policies, anywhere, by taking advantage of the global Internet.
It can stay beyond the reach of any government, including the US if it has to, by moving its HQ and its operations around the world. It has more than 50 data centers all over the world.
This is a watershed moment and one that governments everywhere must be paying close attention to because it demonstrates that when its citizens engage with the Internet, it is a world without borders and where building borders is futile. [China's "Great Firewall" is very porous.]
That's a frightening scenario for any government especially a Chinese government wary of any competition for the hearts and minds of its citizens. And the Internet is its largest source of competitive ideas.
With China, Google is making a bet that there is a business and moral value in an unfiltered Internet, an Internet that is larger than the borders of any one country. I'm pretty sure we already know who's right.
The larger picture here is that Google has realised it has an important advantage: it's not constrained by borders but governments are.
- - -
Please see:
Hilary Clinton: Statement on Google Operations in China
Google Is Facing Wrath Of Korean Government Over Snub Of Internet Law - SVW
« Google Finds Its Backbone - Won't Censor China Search, May Close China Operations | Main | New Info: Chinese Hackers Targeted GOOG's Internal Spy System »
Posted to A Top Story | ChinaWatch | SearchWatch
January 13, 2010 | Permalink | Comment | Subscribe to SVW
- Top Stories:
- PearlTrees - A Way To Curate Your Web
- Disruptive Technologies Disrupt
- The Dead Horse Business Model...
- There's A TED Conference Near You... TEDxSF Is On April 27
- Were Google Hackers Amateurs Or Chinese Cyber Commandos?
- Farmville valued $1B More Than Twitter By The Smart Money
- The "Heinz 57" Media Business Model
- The Need To Teach Bootstrapping In Business Schools
- Criminal Penalties Coming For US Internet Companies That Don't Protect Human Rights Abroad
- Be Careful Of "Dark Territorial Atavism" When Making Changes To Your Web Site
- Intel Number 2 Suffers Stroke...
- Shakeup At Financial Times...
Comments (5)
http://goo.gl/g0Xz
Drummond said that the hackers never got into Gmail accounts via the Google hack, but they did manage to get some "account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line."
That's because they apparently were able to access a system used to help Google comply with search warrants by providing data on Google users, said a source familiar with the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the press. "Right before Christmas, it was, 'Holy s***, this malware is accessing the internal intercept [systems],'" he said.
Posted: January 13, 2010 2:09 PM
Thanks for the additional info. It's interesting that Google was happy to host a system that collected data on its users but now is angry that it was hacked. Why would the Chinese government want to hack into that system when it already had access to Google's user data?!
Posted: January 13, 2010 5:32 PM
The hackers did steel intellectual property. From the blog post you quote but (apparently) didn't read:
we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google
Posted: January 14, 2010 4:57 AM
The user's accounts who were accessed were not Chinese citizens. See here:
"It's another matter entirely to reach into servers around the world to rummage through individual email accounts of citizens of other countries."
China, as a sovereign nation, has the unquestioned ability to enforce sovereign law (collecting user data) by any means it deems necessary. But the contention comes in when it oversteps those bounds through clandestine actions. I think the self-interest argument about Google is...pretty, but it doesn't fully answer the question. More likely we're looking at a true international conflict of ideology with private enterprise caught in the middle.
Posted: January 24, 2010 6:49 PM
Robertson, good point. I can see situations why a withdrawal would make sense but how does that work as for Internet company? Surely hackers know no boundaries? But governments do have boundaries...legal boundaries. That doesn't stop governments from seeking to extend their influence beyond their boundaries
Posted: January 24, 2010 7:35 PM