Google's internal spy system.....

[Night Hawk]

Google has a spy system to watch it's users?!
(wouldn't be the first!)

January 13th, 2010

Google's internal spy system was Chinese hacker target

Posted by Tom Foremski @ 6:33 pm

Computerworld has a very interesting story about the Google/China flap.
Reporter Robert McMillan quotes an unnamed source:

…they [hackers] 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.
​

Google was already hosting a spy system that provided the Chinese government, and any other government with user data. They merely had to request that data through a warrant. That internal spy system became the weak spot in Google’s security technology.

More at: Google's internal spy system was Chinese hacker target | Tom Foremski: IMHO | ZDNet.com

 

[smarteyeball]

Google is a multi-faceted spy. It's both blatant and insidious.


In fact, it already knows I said that

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Is anyone really surprised by this? :shock:

 

[Barman58]

Google were legally obliged to comply with certain "requests" by the Chinese government in order to start the google.cn operation. This was not popular with a significant minority of the Google team.

The recent access attempts on certain user accounts is in breech of what was agreed and may well lead to Google leaving china.

If this is the case I feel sorry for the 40% of Chinese users who currently use the service. The alternative for these users is a virtually government run system that is totally censored

 

[smarteyeball]

The alternative for these users is a virtually government run system that is totally censored

We'll let them know how it works out...

 

[Barman58]

Only if the Austrailian Government let you know

The question of censorship of the Net is a long running one that hopefully the advocates of a free and open systems will win.

I know that there are certain things that certain users should be protected from but I am totally against the blanket "big brother" attitude that seems to be becoming the way that authorities are going.

I regularly apply censorship of the net for clients but that is only ever put in place after discussions with the customer

 

[Night Hawk]

What you are doing there is "with customer consent" over finding out that Google as well as even your own ISP is playing spy games with you!

A couple of years back that came to light where ISPs track your browsing habits and then turn around and sell that info to advertisers. It appears Google has been practicing the same policy to some extent.