IRS Auditing How Google Shifted Profits Into Offshore Subsidiaries

IRS Auditing How Google Shifted Profits (Bloomberg, Oct 13, 2011):

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is auditing how Google Inc. (GOOG) avoided federal income taxes by shifting profit into offshore subsidiaries, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

The agency is bringing more than typical scrutiny to how the company valued software rights and other intellectual property it licensed abroad, said the person, who requested anonymity because the audit isn’t public. The IRS has requested information from Google about its offshore deals after three acquisitions, including its $1.65 billion purchase of YouTube, the person said. The transfer overseas of these kinds of rights has enabled Google to attribute earnings to foreign units that pay lower taxes, Bloomberg News reported a year ago.

While Google’s potential liability isn’t clear, similar deals between companies and offshore arms are often the subject of disputes over hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes, said Daniel Frisch, an economist at Horst Frisch Inc. which advises businesses on transfer pricing — the allocation of income between units in different countries. In 2006, the IRS settled a case with drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK) for $3.4 billion.

“The very biggest transfer-pricing tax disputes are over transfers of intangibles to offshore subsidiaries,” said Frisch, whose firm is based in Washington.

Google, owner of the world’s most popular search engine, has cut its worldwide tax bill by about $1 billion a year using a pair of strategies called the “Double Irish” and “Dutch Sandwich,” which move profits through units in Ireland, the Netherlands and Bermuda. Google reported an effective tax rate of 18.8 percent in the second quarter, less than half the average combined U.S. and state statutory rate of 39.2 percent.

Read moreIRS Auditing How Google Shifted Profits Into Offshore Subsidiaries

Internet Firms Such As Google, Twitter And Facebook Co-opted For Surveillance

Internet firms co-opted for surveillance: experts (Reuters, Sep. 30, 2011):

Internet companies such as Google, Twitter and Facebook are increasingly co-opted for surveillance work as the information they gather proves irresistible to law enforcement agencies, Web experts said this week.

Although such companies try to keep their users’ information private, their business models depend on exploiting it to sell targeted advertising, and when governments demand they hand it over, they have little choice but to comply.

Suggestions that BlackBerry maker RIM might give user data to British police after its messenger service was used to coordinate riots this summer caused outrage — as has the spying on social media users by more oppressive governments.

Read moreInternet Firms Such As Google, Twitter And Facebook Co-opted For Surveillance

Independent Scienctist Leuren Moret: New World Order – Depopulation Agenda – Genocide (Video)

MUST-SEE!

Download the video before it’s gone!



YouTube Added:11.02.2011

Google Deletes ‘Activist Post’ (A Very Popular Alternative News Source)

Is the truth getting painful for the elitists?


Activist Post Deleted! Google Erases Popular Alternative News Source (Before It’s News, Sep. 24, 2011):

At mid-day on Friday, September 23, 2011, the popular alternative news blog, ActivistPost.com, was taken offline. Activist Post receives over one million views per month and has been hosted by Google’s Blogger since its founding in June 2010.

“We remain puzzled as to why Activist Post was erased completely by Google,” said chief editor and co-founder Michael Edwards. “When we tried to load our back-up file into our secondary Blogger account, that was blocked as well,” he added.

It remains unclear whether Google has acted to censor ActivistPost.com for their controversial reporting.  Google is becoming somewhat notorious for clamping down on truth and liberty activists, of which Activist Post is known for.

“Clearly, this is a huge set back for us and the work we do,” said co-founder Eric Blair.  “Our entire crew is working on resolving the issue and restoring the website.  We certainly look forward to an explanation from Google.”

Activist Post will file an appeal with Google to restore the site in full, and asks their loyal supporters to make their voices heard as well.  However, they also are seeking other hosting services to avoid these types of censorship issues in the future.

Read moreGoogle Deletes ‘Activist Post’ (A Very Popular Alternative News Source)

iPhones And Android ‘Tracking’ Phones Building Vast Databases For Google And Apple – How to See the Secret Tracking Data in Your iPhone

iPhones and Android ‘tracking’ phones building vast databases for Google and Apple (Guardian):

Apple and Google are using smartphones running their software to build gigantic databases for location-based services, according to new research following the Guardian’s revelations that iPhones and devices running Android collect location data about owners’ movements.

Samy Kamkar, a hacker and researcher, has shown that Android phones, which run on software written by Google, collect the location data every few seconds and store it in a local file, but also transmit it to Google several times an hour.

How to See the Secret Tracking Data in Your iPhone (PC Mag):

Coverage of the iPhone tracking “feature” has ranged from concern to outrage. “I don’t know about you, but the fact that this feature exists on an iPhone is a deal-killer,” wrote PCMag Columnist John Dvorak, shortly after news broke. PCMag Executive Editor Dan Costa drew a softer line, writing, “Apple may not be actively tracking you, but it did turn your phone into a tracking device without telling you.”

Apple, Google Collect User Data (Wall Street Journal):

Apple Inc.’s iPhones and Google Inc.’s Android smartphones regularly transmit their locations back to Apple and Google, respectively, according to data and documents analyzed by The Wall Street Journal—intensifying concerns over privacy and the widening trade in personal data.

Google and Apple are gathering location information as part of their race to build massive databases capable of pinpointing people’s locations via their cellphones. These databases could help them tap the $2.9 billion market for location-based services—expected to rise to $8.3 billion in 2014, according to research firm Gartner Inc.

In the case of Google, according to new research by security analyst Samy Kamkar, an HTC Android phone collected its location every few seconds and transmitted the data to Google at least several times an hour. It also transmitted the name, location and signal strength of any nearby Wi-Fi networks, as well as a unique phone identifier.

Google declined to comment on the findings.

Read moreiPhones And Android ‘Tracking’ Phones Building Vast Databases For Google And Apple – How to See the Secret Tracking Data in Your iPhone

Facebook and Google ‘in Talks to Buy’ £7.5 Billion Twitter


Major acquisition: Purchase of £7.5billion Twitter would be a big buy for £30bn rated Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg

Technology giants Google and Facebook are reported to be in talks to buy Twitter, the popular social networking site.

Executives at the two companies have been engaged in low-level discussions with Twitter for months, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Twitter, which is favoured by the famous to send out snippets of information, is said to be valued at up to £7.5billion.

The takeover of company, which only launched three years ago, would mark the first major acquisition by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

His own social media site started in a Harvard University dorm room seven years ago has experienced an explosion in popularity and is now worth said to be worth £30bilion.

Twitter is the social networking site that allows users to send short, 140-character messages to each other.

Scores of celebrities including John Cleese, Stephen Fry and Piers Morgan are active users of Twitter which was started in 2007.

Even President Obama has a Twitter account and there are estimated to be more than 190milion users worldwide.

Latest figures show there are over 65 million ‘tweets’ a day.

Read moreFacebook and Google ‘in Talks to Buy’ £7.5 Billion Twitter

Google Under Fire For ‘Secret’ Relationship With NSA, DoD And Other Agencies



Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group largely focused in recent years on Google’s privacy practices, has called on a congressional investigation into the Internet giant’s “cozy” relationship with U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration.

In a letter sent Monday, Consumer Watchdog asked Representative Darrell Issa, the new chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, to investigate the relationship between Google and several government agencies.

The group asked Issa to investigate contracts at several U.S. agencies for Google technology and services, the “secretive” relationship between Google and the U.S. National Security Agency, and the company’s use of a U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration airfield in California.

Federal agencies have also taken “insufficient” action in response to revelations last year that Google Street View cars were collecting data from open Wi-Fi connections they passed, Consumer Watchdog said in the letter.

“We believe Google has inappropriately benefited from close ties to the administration,” the letter said. “Google is most consumers’ gateway to the Internet. Nonetheless, it should not get special treatment and access because of a special relationship with the administration.”

Consumer Watchdog may have an ally in Issa, a California Republican. In July, he sent a letter to Google raising concerns that White House Deputy Chief Technology Officer Andrew McLaughlin, the former head of global public policy for Google, had inappropriate e-mail contact with company employees.

Read moreGoogle Under Fire For ‘Secret’ Relationship With NSA, DoD And Other Agencies

How Your Smartphone is Keeping Track of You: Apps Secretly Monitor Users

Don’t miss:

Big Brother iPhone Patriot App Turns Users Into Government Spies



Drawback? Most programmes for smartphones, such as this iPhone, send data back to companies that sold them

Dozens of popular iPhone apps are secretly monitoring users and sending information back to companies – who then use it to target them with adverts.

More than half of the programmes and games for smartphones sent data back to the private companies once they had been downloaded, a study found.

The apps include the wildly popular Angry Birds game and music identifying software Shazam, which comes pre-installed on every iPhone.

Armed with this information firms including Google track the individuals’ movements and sell personalised adverts for which they can make more money than regular ones.

The study found that of 101 apps tested, 56 transmitted the phone’s individual number to a private company in some way, known as the Unique Device Identifier or UDID.

Some 47 sent the phone’s location and five sent age, gender and other personal information.

More data was sent back about a user’s location on the Apple’s iPhone than Google’s Android smartphone, the research discovered, even though both companies have promised not to let such practices take place.

The research was carried out in the U.S. but it would apply to users downloading apps from anywhere in the world.

Read moreHow Your Smartphone is Keeping Track of You: Apps Secretly Monitor Users

Google’s Street View cars grabbed emails, passwords

Google admits its cars grabbed emails, passwords


2010 CeBIT Technology Fair
in Hanover

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Google Inc admitted for the first time its “Street View” cars around the world accidentally collected more personal data than previously disclosed — including complete emails and passwords — potentially breathing new life into probes in various countries.

The disclosure comes just days after Canada’s privacy watchdog said Google had collected complete emails and accused Google of violating the rights of thousands of Canadians.

“If in fact laws were broken…then there’s some serious question of culpability and Google may need to face significant fines,” said Marc Rotenberg, the executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington DC-based privacy advocacy group.

Regulators in France, Germany and Spain, among others, have opened investigations into the matter.

A coalition of more than 30 state attorneys general in the United States also have launched a joint probe.

It remains unclear how many people may have been affected by the privacy breach.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who is leading the multi-state investigation, said in a statement on Friday that Google’s disclosure about the types of data it collected “validates and heightens our significant concerns,” and noted that the investigation is continuing.

Google’s Street View cars, which are well known for crisscrossing the globe and taking panoramic pictures of the city’s streets, accidentally collected data from unsecured wireless networks used by residents in more than 30 countries, Google disclosed in May.

Read moreGoogle’s Street View cars grabbed emails, passwords

Google Cut Its Taxes By $3.1 Billion, Tax Rate At Only 2.4%, $60 Billion Lost to Tax Loopholes

“The system is broken and I think it needs to be scrapped,” said Avi-Yonah, also a special counsel at law firm Steptoe & Johnson LLP in Washington D.C. “Companies are getting away with murder.”



The Dublin subsidiary, which employs almost 2,000 people and sells advertising across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, has more than tripled its workforce since 2006 and is credited with almost 90 percent of Google’s overseas sales, which totaled $12.5 billion in 2008. Photographer: Paul McErlane/Bloomberg

Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) — Google Inc. cut its taxes by $3.1 billion in the last three years using a technique that moves most of its foreign profits through Ireland and the Netherlands to Bermuda.

Google’s income shifting — involving strategies known to lawyers as the “Double Irish” and the “Dutch Sandwich” — helped reduce its overseas tax rate to 2.4 percent, the lowest of the top five U.S. technology companies by market capitalization, according to regulatory filings in six countries.

“It’s remarkable that Google’s effective rate is that low,” said Martin A. Sullivan, a tax economist who formerly worked for the U.S. Treasury Department. “We know this company operates throughout the world mostly in high-tax countries where the average corporate rate is well over 20 percent.”

The U.S. corporate income-tax rate is 35 percent. In the U.K., Google’s second-biggest market by revenue, it’s 28 percent.

Read moreGoogle Cut Its Taxes By $3.1 Billion, Tax Rate At Only 2.4%, $60 Billion Lost to Tax Loopholes

Google Tests Cars That Steer THEMSELVES – In Busy Traffic


Google takes over the roads: The test car has been sent out with a team of engineers in case of technical problems

Google is driving head first into more controversy today after revealing it has been testing its innovative hands-free car technology on California’s roads.

For it wasn’t talking about keeping hands off the phone or the GPS – alarmingly, it was testing cars driven with hands off the steering wheel.

Road safety experts were raising questions about the robot-driven cars after Google revealed it has logged over 140,000 miles around the state – almost all of them on auto-pilot.

The specially adapted Toyota Prius automated cars drove from Google’s HQ in Mountain View, Northern California, down the famously scenic Pacific Coast Highway to Santa Monica.

They also drove across the Golden Gate Bridge and down San Francisco’s Lombard Street, one of the nation’s steepest and curviest roads.

The computer giant boasts that seven cars, which have funnel-like cylinders on the roof that acts as the vehicle’s ‘eye’, have driven 1,000 miles at a time without any hands-on human input.

Read moreGoogle Tests Cars That Steer THEMSELVES – In Busy Traffic

BP Buys Search Term ‘Oil Spill’ From Google

Related article:

BP ‘manipulating search results’ on Google following oil spill (Times):

The company is purchasing terms such as “oil spill”, “Deepwater Horizon” and “Gulf of Mexico”, so that when a user types these words into the search engines, the results prominently feature a “sponsored link” to BP’s official page on its response to the spill.

Critics have described BP’s move as unethical. Maureen Mackey, a writer on the Fiscal Times, an online news site, said: “What it effectively does is that it bumps down other legitimate news and opinion pieces that are addressing the spill… and \[BP are\] paying big money for that.”

See also:

BP CEO Tony Hayward sold £1.4 million of his shares weeks before Gulf blowout

Goldman Sachs Sold 44% Of Its BP Stock 3 Weeks Before Gulf Blowout


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Oil is seen inside protective booms around Queen Bess Island off the coast of Louisiana Monday, June, 7, 2010. (AP)

gulf-of-mexico-oil-spill
A bird flies above oil on the Gulf of Mexico off of East Grand Terre Island along the Louisiana coast (AP)

LONDON (Reuters) – BP Plc has bought terms such as “oil spill” from search engine providers including Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGnews) to help direct Internet users to its website as it attempts to control the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

A spokesman said BP would pay fees so its own website would rank higher or even top in the list of results when Internet users search on terms such as “oil spill,” “volunteer” and “claims.”

BP did not say how much it was paying for the service but President Barack Obama has criticised the company for spending $50 million on TV advertising to bolster its image during the crisis.

BP said it wanted to help people who were trying to access information on the BP website to find it more readily, rather than intending to draw away hits from other sites.

“We know people are looking for those terms on our website and we’re just trying to make it easier for them to get directly to those terms,” the spokesman told Reuters.

Read moreBP Buys Search Term ‘Oil Spill’ From Google

US Cyber Command: War In World’s Fifth Battlespace

us-cyber-command_logo

On May 21 U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced the activation of the Pentagon’s first computer command. And the world’s first comprehensive, multi-service military cyber operation.

U.S. Cyber Command (CYBERCOM), initially approved on June 23, 2009, attained the status of what the Pentagon calls initial operations capability eleven months afterward. It is to be fully operational later this year.

CYBERCOM is based at Fort Meade, Maryland, which also is home to the National Security Agency (NSA). The head of the NSA and the related Central Security Service is Keith Alexander, U.S. Army lieutenant general on the morning of May 21 but promoted to four-star general before the formal launching of Cyber Command later in the day so as to become its commander.

The U.S. Senate confirmed Alexander for his new position on May 7. In written testimony presented to Congress earlier, he stated that in addition to the defense of computer systems and networks, “the cyber command would be prepared to wage offensive operations as well….” [1] Two days before his confirmation the Associated Press reported that Alexander “said the U.S. is determined to lead the global effort to use computer technology to deter or defeat enemies.” [2] The conjunction “and” would serve the purpose better than “or.”

The day Alexander assumed his new command Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn “called the establishment of U.S. Cyber Command at Fort Meade, Md., today a milestone in the United States being able to conduct full-spectrum operations in a new domain,” adding that the “cyber domain…is as important as the land, sea, air and space domains to the U.S. military, and protecting military networks is crucial to the Defense Department’s success on the battlefield.” [3]

Read moreUS Cyber Command: War In World’s Fifth Battlespace

Big Brother Google’s Wi-Fi Spying: What Were They Thinking?

privacy-vs-google

“Don’t be evil” has gone all 1984 on us. Or so it seems after Google revealed Friday that its Street View cars, in addition to snapping photos of the world’s roadways, have also been collecting sensitive personal information from unencrypted wireless networks.

It was no secret that Google’s cars had already been collecting publicly broadcast SSID information (Wi-Fi network names) and MAC addresses (unique numbers for devices like Wi-Fi routers). But this techie data, which is used for location-based services such as Google Maps, didn’t include any “payload data,” or personal information sent over the network.

Or so “Big Brother” Google claimed on April 27. But yesterday the search behemoth ‘fessed up to a security gaffe of Orwellian proportions. Due to a piece of code written in 2006 by an engineer for an experimental Wi-Fi project, Google had in fact been collecting those private bits after all:

“But it’s now clear that we have been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open (i.e. non-password-protected) WiFi networks, even though we never used that data in any Google products,” wrote Alan Eustace, Google senior VP, engineering & research.

Wow. That’s freaky and strange. And not in a good way, either.

Read moreBig Brother Google’s Wi-Fi Spying: What Were They Thinking?

Google TV: Google Aims to Offer Internet on Your TV

google-tv-002

Google is set to move into the living room with a computer operating system that will bring the internet to home televisions.

The company is working with the chipmaker Intel and Sony, the electronics giant, to introduce Google TV this week at a conference for 3,000 Google software developers in San Francisco.

The aim is to get them to create new and innovative applications in the same way that outside developers have created new software programs for smartphones.The system will be based on its Android platform, which was developed 18 months ago for mobile phones. There are already more than 50,000 applications available for Android.

The aim now is to put the web on to televisions via a new generation of television sets and set-top boxes, further blurring the line between home entertainment and computing.

Read moreGoogle TV: Google Aims to Offer Internet on Your TV

Google vs. China: Google Moves To Hongkong, Leaves Censorship To China

China attacks Google for lifting censorship: (Channel 4 News):

China has said Google’s move to stop censoring search results is “totally wrong” and accused it of breaking a promise made when it launched in China.

The ‘Spiegel’ has an interesting article, but not in English.

Translation by Google translator: Here.

Google überlässt Peking das Zensieren (Spiegel Online):

Es klingt wie ein Befreiungsschlag, doch Googles Umzug nach Hongkong bringt den chinesischen Nutzern nicht die Internet-Perestroika. Anstelle des Web-Konzerns übernimmt nun die staatliche Filtersoftware direkt den Zensurjob. Viele Inhalte bleiben gesperrt.

Das Manöver mutet an wie ein Befreiungsschlag im Kampf gegen die allmächtige Web-Zensur in China: Google leitet seit Montag Suchanfragen aus der Volksrepublik auf nicht-zensierte Server in Hongkong um. Das klingt auf den ersten Blick nach mehr Inhalten für Chinas Nutzer, tatsächlich aber dürfte sich für sie wenig ändern.

Der Umzug nach Hongkong hat für Google dennoch einen entscheidenden Vorteil: Der Suchmaschinenbetreiber macht sich die Hände nicht mehr selbst schmutzig. Fürs Filtern sind jetzt die chinesischen Behörden direkt zuständig. Die Nutzer der Suchmaschine im übrigen China spüren nun auch deutlicher, dass zensiert wird. Es ist etwas anderes, wenn Suchanfragen versanden, als wenn man eine Auswahl der regimefreundlichsten Treffer erhält.


Google vs. China

google-internet-censorship-beijing
Google’s China headquarters remains open in Beijing on March 19, 2010. Google will close its business in China next month with an official announcement early next week, Chinese state media reported Friday. (UPI)

BEIJING, March 23 (UPI) — Search engine giant Google is apparently sidestepping Chinese censorship by directing users to a Hong Kong site where browsers can surf the Internet unfettered.

Chinese officials declared the move was in violation of Google agreements with Beijing regarding access to the huge Chinese market.

The move by Google is seen as related to allegations hacking attacks on activists’ e-mail accounts and Google sites were traced to Chinese locations.

Google, on its Web site, said Monday it stopped censoring searches on its Chinese site.

“We believe this new approach of providing uncensored search in simplified Chinese from Google.com.hk is a sensible solution to the challenges we’ve faced — it’s entirely legal and will meaningfully increase access to information for people in China,” Google said.

Read moreGoogle vs. China: Google Moves To Hongkong, Leaves Censorship To China

Google CEO Eric Schmidt: ‘America’s Second-Rate Broadband Is Dragging Us Down’

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM ANNUAL MEETING 2010 DAVOS
DAVOS/SWITZERLAND – Eric Schmidt, Chairman of the Executive Committee and Chief Executive Officer, Google, USA; Co-Chair of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2010 talks during the session ‘Technology for Society’ at the Annual Meeting 2010 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 29, 2010 in the Congress Centre.

Power. Clean water. The Interstate highway system. It’s easy to forget that the advantages of modern American life result from basic infrastructure investments made by earlier generations.

Tomorrow the FCC will release a national broadband strategy. The plan will set goals for expanding broadband to unserved and under-served areas, promote greater speeds, and drive consumer demand. It will harness this communications technology to urgent national priorities, such as jobs, education, health, energy, and security. In short, the plan will lay the groundwork for investing in America’s future.

Yes, the Internet was invented in the United States. Yes, we once led the world in broadband development. But now, networks in many countries, from Western Europe to East Asia, are faster and more advanced than our own. Long after we recover from this recession, this broadband gap will be a dead weight on American businesses and workers, unless we act now.

Read moreGoogle CEO Eric Schmidt: ‘America’s Second-Rate Broadband Is Dragging Us Down’

Australian Government Requests Google To Censor YouTube

youtube-censorship
Not that we already have more than enough censorship!


Google says it will not “voluntarily” comply with the government’s request that it censor YouTube videos in accordance with broad “refused classification” (RC) content rules.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy referred to Google’s censorship on behalf of the Chinese and Thai governments in making his case for the company to impose censorship locally.

Google warns this would lead to the removal of many politically controversial, but harmless, YouTube clips.

University of Sydney associate professor Bjorn Landfeldt, one of Australia’s top communications experts, said that to comply with Conroy’s request Google “would have to install a filter along the lines of what they actually have in China”.

As it prepares to introduce legislation within weeks forcing ISPs to block a blacklist of RC websites, the government says it is in talks with Google over blocking the same type of material from YouTube.

Read moreAustralian Government Requests Google To Censor YouTube

German government warns against using Internet Explorer

internet-explorer-logo The warning applies to versions 6, 7 and 8 of Internet Explorer

The German government has warned web users to find an alternative browser to Internet Explorer to protect security.

The warning from the Federal Office for Information Security comes after Microsoft admitted IE was the weak link in recent attacks on Google’s systems.

Microsoft rejected the warning, saying that the risk to users was low and that the browsers’ increased security setting would prevent any serious risk.

However, German authorities say that even this would not make IE fully safe.

Thomas Baumgaertner, a spokesman for Microsoft in Germany, said that while they were aware of the warning, they did not agree with it, saying that the attacks on Google were by “highly motivated people with a very specific agenda”.

“These were not attacks against general users or consumers,” said Mr Baumgaertner.

“There is no threat to the general user, consequently we do not support this warning,” he added.

Read moreGerman government warns against using Internet Explorer

China Tells Google and Other Internet Companies to Follow the Law

Google May Close Operations in China (Video):

CNBC interview with David Drummond, chief legal officer at Google, who discusses the Internet giant’s reaction to an assault by hackers who sought to penetrate the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.

Google considers to shut down business operations in China (Official Google Blog)


google-china
A worker in the lobby of Google’s office Wednesday in Beijing.

BEIJING – Two days after Google announced that it would quit China unless the nation’s censors eased their grip, the Chinese government offered an indirect but unambiguous response: Companies that do business in China must follow the laws of the land.

The comments, by two different officials Thursday, suggested that China was unlikely to give ground on Google’s demands that its search engine results be unfiltered. In announcing its decision Tuesday that it might leave the world’s biggest Internet market, Google also cited a series of cyberattacks aimed at breaching the accounts of human rights advocates on its e-mail service, Gmail.

Several of those who said their e-mail accounts were hacked provided more details about the assaults Thursday.

After a day of silence, the Foreign Ministry said that China welcomed foreign Internet companies but that those offering online services must do so “in accordance with the law.” Speaking at a scheduled news conference, Jiang Yu, a ministry spokeswoman, did not address Google’s complaints about censorship and cyberattacks and simply stated that “China’s Internet is open.”

The remarks, and those of another high-ranking official who called for even tighter Internet restrictions, may speed Google’s departure and increase friction between Beijing and the Obama administration, which has made priorities of Internet freedom and online security.

Read moreChina Tells Google and Other Internet Companies to Follow the Law

Google considers to shut down business operations in China

“These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered–combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web–have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.”


A new approach to China

Google

Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, 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. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident–albeit a significant one–was something quite different.

First, this attack was not just on Google. As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses–including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors–have been similarly targeted. We are currently in the process of notifying those companies, and we are also working with the relevant U.S. authorities.

Second, we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Based on our investigation to date we believe their attack did not achieve that objective. 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.

Third, as part of this investigation but independent of the attack on Google, we have discovered that the accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties. These accounts have not been accessed through any security breach at Google, but most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on the users’ computers.

Read moreGoogle considers to shut down business operations in China

Big Brother Google Expands Tracking To Logged Out Users

Now, everyone has their activities tracked in the name of a better service

big-brother-google
Google wants to make sure everyone takes it personally

Anyone who’s a regular Google search user will know that the only way to avoid the company tracking your online activities is to log out of Gmail or whatever Google account you use. Not any more.

As of last Friday, even searchers who aren’t logged into Google in any way have their data tracked in the name of providing a ‘better service’.

Anonymous cookie

The company explained: “What we’re doing today is expanding Personalized Search so that we can provide it to signed-out users as well. This addition enables us to customise search results for you based upon 180 days of search activity linked to an anonymous cookie in your browser.”

However, if you’ve previously been a fan of the log-out method to avoid being tracked, there’s still the option to disable the cookie by clicking a link at the top right of a search results page.

Read moreBig Brother Google Expands Tracking To Logged Out Users

Climategate: Googlegate?!

google-chrome

What is going on at Google? I only ask because last night when I typed “Global Warming” into Google News the top item was Christopher Booker’s superb analysis of the Climategate scandal.

It’s still the most-read article of the Telegraph’s entire online operation – 430 comments and counting – yet mysteriously when you try the same search now it doesn’t even feature. Instead, the top-featured item is a blogger pushing Al Gore’s AGW agenda. Perhaps there’s nothing sinister in this. Perhaps some Google-savvy reader can enlighten me…..

UPDATE: Richard North has some interesting thoughts on this. He too suspects some sort of skullduggery.

Read moreClimategate: Googlegate?!

On the Edge with Max Keiser (08/21/09): Revolution is in the air in America

More on Blackwater (now XE):
CIA hired Blackwater mercenaries to try to hit al-Qaeda
“Incestuous” relationships between Blackwater and the US government
Blackwater got a new $22.2 million deal from the State Department
Paul Craig Roberts: Americans: Serfs Ruled by Oligarchs


1 of 3:

Read moreOn the Edge with Max Keiser (08/21/09): Revolution is in the air in America

On the Edge with Max Keiser (07/03/09)

Special guest, Paul Craig Roberts.

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Read moreOn the Edge with Max Keiser (07/03/09)