Google Saying No To Censorship

I don’t have time to really put a lot of thought into a large argument about why I support Google’s actions. My thoughts so far…

• Just because they pull out of the Chinese market doesn’t mean they can’t use the benefits of China as cheap outsourcing in a number of areas, either tech support, BPO, or actual software outsourcing.
• Pulling out of the Chinese market equates to loss of earnings in China. If by somehow staying in China they’re putting data privacy at risk, and opening themselves to a security threat, then this affects their service agreements with other companies in the west and could be more damaging than gains afforded by staying. The basis of this argument has got to be based on a technological issue of having servers located in China, otherwise the danger is the same no matter where you are on the net, and an ongoing problem for them unrelated to being in China or not.
• Pulling out the Google brand name does not mean that they have to stop operating in China.

Finally, I’m rather glad I don’t have to be in China while this is happening. The fallout of Google leaving China would be horrible. Having to use local email, rss readers, and search services isn’t a nice thought. For the skeptical among us, I suppose its just another marketing tool for rallying support of Google to make us think that they value privacy. I genuinely believe that they do, and I’m glad to see them protecting my data.

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5. Google Chrome