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Ian Elwood
Web Producer
Water is a right for all living beings. It is not for governments to annex or corporations to privatize. For life to thrive, rivers must be kept free-flowing and available to all.

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Surfing the Web Within China

Wed, 01/13/2010 - 9:20am
By: 
Ian Elwood
Google China Logo

Google China Logo

Being an activist who works in China may have gotten a lot harder in the past few weeks. Google and twenty other large US based companies were hit by a sophisticated cyber-attack that originated from within China in December, making the company question its policies about doing business there. What is of concern to our readers is that the attackers were attempting to get information on Chinese human rights activists. While the attacks were unsuccessful it still brings up a familiar theme to those advocating on behalf of the poor and marginalized -- questioning the status quo is not always popular.

Working across Chinese borders is notoriously difficult for activists, NGOs and businesses. The censorship of a long list of websites (try accessing this site from within China) makes international coordination more difficult than with other countries. Google does not specify the parties involved in the attacks -- though the Chinese government is well known for its censorship and persecution of human rights activists -- but the company did state that these attacks have made it "review the feasibility of our business operations in China."

One positive outcome, from a human rights and free speech perspective, is that Google has drawn a line in the sand and will be negotiating with the Chinese government to offer uncensored search results to China. Whether this will happen or Google.cn will go dark because of government resistance is yet to be decided, but either way there will be a large impact on any international group working across Chinese borders. Stay tuned...

Ian Elwood is the Web Producer for International Rivers, he blogs at:
internationalrivers.org/en/blog/ian-elwood

More information: 
  • One search engine that does not record personal information is startpage. Because the search engine does not record this data, there is no repository of personal information that could be mined.
  • For the super geeky, here is a Firefox add-on that allows you to surf the web from anywhere in the world, as a virtual Chinese Internet tourist. You will be routed to a location behind China's firewall, visiting forbidden sites will disconnect you for up to 15 minutes.

Comments

Fri, 01/15/2010 - 10:28am — Katy Yan

Great blog

Thanks for suggesting startpage! For an interesting, geeky (and paranoid) article on losing control over personal choice, thanks to Google and Apple, see: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/31/the_out_of_control_decade/

Tue, 01/19/2010 - 9:46am — Ian Elwood

Thanks!

Thanks for the link, very interesting. The "losing control" argument is one of the main reasons so many people working in a human rights and technology context (myself included) push for the use of open source software. Using open source software keeps much of the control in the hands of the user because the mechanics of how any such computer program works are completely transparent.

Firefox is the most popular example. It would be very difficult for the program to somehow violate the rights of the user (covert monitoring of websites visited, etc..) because anyone can independently analyze the mechanics of how the software works without asking permission from the company. You can simply download the program and inspect it.

This is impossible with something created by Apple, such as iTunes. The mechanics of the program are locked down so that users can not scrutinize their inner workings. For this reason it is always preferable to use an open source program instead of a closed source program, computer operating system or electronic device.