Google, the world’s largest Internet search engine, said Tuesday that it may pull out of China because of a sophisticated computer network attack originating in China and targeting its e-mail service.
“We’re reviewing our operations there,” a company spokesperson said. “If it comes down to it, we may” leave.
Google said it had evidence to suggest that “a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts” of Chinese human rights activists. The attack was discovered in December.
Based on its investigation to date, Google said it does not believe the attack succeeded. “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,” the post said.
I will be shocked if Google really follows through with pulling out China Operations because of the compromised emails. I think Google is just trying to win points with the US Gov in an effort to gain traction in other areas they have having problems in , such as the copy righted materials being scanned and broadcast to the world. I asked a few people here at the John R. Carlisle Institute if they thought Google would really pull out of China and no one thought they would really do it. Time will tell and we will see, probably sooner than later.
John R. Carlisle
Is there anything that could hurt Google more than to have an entire government working to steal Their (Google's) user's private email data? The simple fact is that Google's goal and China's are incompatible, long-term. Google wants to empower people the freedom to find and do what they want. (as long as it's commercially viable) and China does not. But you're probably right. China is a huge market to move out of.