Google is working on a secret project called Dragonfly to create a version of its search engine that will blacklist websites and search terms about human rights, democracy, religion, and peaceful protest.

https://theintercept.com/2018/08/01/...ine-censorship

This will allow Google to operate in China, where it is currently blocked. Obviously opening Google to the huge Chinese market is a very profitable proposition.

It can hardly be a "secret project" if we know about it.

If true, it certainly does seem to indicate a "break" in the google philosophy. Not in a good way.

We know about it only because some Google staff have blown the whistle.

Maybe because we're closer to Asia, but that is not news at all down this part of the world. I've been seeing articles on Google employees pushing back on this for a while.

Google's motto: make money.

China's motto: censorship is great.

I'm a little enthused by people who expect Google to Do The Right thing. That *would* be fantastic. I just don't think we're going to see Big Tech fix a political problem.

I am actually a bit aghast that google ever thought they could keep a lid on this and avoid what will inevitably be a considerable loss of what they now have. I need to know more but even I, who began using both the search and gmail literally at it's inception, as a result of this news am beginning to look at just how much digging I will have to do to get out from under.

I thought Google changed its motto for : Do the right thing
Which can be interpreted as : Do the right thing [to make money|to have more users|to sell more ads|...]

There has always been a qualifier to Google's "Don't be evil."

It reads, "But skate as close to the edge of evil as you dare."

Weren't they also developing AI systems for the military recently? Anyway, Google has long since strayed from not being evil. I quit using all Google products and services 3 years ago.

Not wishing to be pernickety but this is kind of hard to do, isn't it, since they're doing what they can to make themselves ubiquitours?

That would mean not using:

Google search
Android
YouTube
Chrome/Chromium of any browser that uses the Chromium base [Edge/Vivaldi/Brave/Opera]
Gmail
Google Maps
Google Play
Google Docs
Google translate

I'm not a fan of Google but I still use Google search, YouTube, Vivaldi, Gmail [academic email, I have no choice*], Google Scholar and maps.

*actually, I've just had a thought. My institution uses Gmail but the address is .ac.uk. I wonder if they're just using Gmail as a way to display email via the web and that it doesn't need to go through Gmail but could be used with, e.g Claws or something else [actually, regardless of that I think they still use Gmail's servers, since the address mail.xxx.ac.uk points straight to Gmail].

1) I use DuckDuckGo
2) I have a dumb phone
3) Okay, I watch the occasional YouTube video when linked to, but I don't have an account. I like Vimeo.
4) I use Firefox
5) I use Riseup and Protonmail
6) OpenStreetMap
7) I listen to the radio, or SomaFM
8) LibreOffice
9) My Word Scribe

How many of us have dumbphones? I do, and I know ruario does as well. I suppose it's not that much of a surprise given our area[s] of interest and concern.

I don't have a mobile of any kind. Why would I want to ring someone when I am out walking? If I do want to ring someone, I use my land line when I get home.

Yeah, I seem to be coming across a lot of people lately that are either switching back to dumb phones, or just never got on board with smart phones to begin with.

I heard a talk years ago on the subject of personal ethics and self-improvement. The speaker described three different attitudes he encountered, which can be summed up as "How bad can I be?", "How good do I have to be?", and "I want to be the best I can."

Sadly, one side effect of having "making money" as the main goal and "don't be evil" as a policy is that every time there's a conflict between the two, someone is likely to ask one of the first two questions. If only "don't be evil" was the goal...