Google keeps search records files from China

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http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=15927&hed=Google+Keeps+Files+from+China

Google keeps files from China

Search giant Google is storing the search records for its recently
launched Chinese site <http://Google.cn>Google.cn outside the country
in an effort to keep the Chinese government from demanding the files.
'We didn't want to be in the position of having to hand over these
kinds of records to the government,' said Peter Norvig, Google's
director of research, at a panel discussion at Santa Clara University
in California on Monday, according to IDG News Service.

The company debuted the Chinese search engine in January, but
received heavy criticism for agreeing to censor search results, and
leave out features such as Chinese versions of its Blogger and
Blogspot blog services and Gmail email system. Google stores
information on the IP addresses of users who have made search
queries, and that information could be used to trace the identities
of internet users.

The Mountain View, California-based company had to appear before the
US Congress recently to defend its practices in China, along with
Yahoo, Microsoft, and Cisco Systems.

- Red Herring