Computerworld: Google moving search records out of China.
From it: The Mountain View, Calif., company has decided to store search records from the site outside of China in order to prevent that government from being able to access the data without Google’s consent, said Peter Norvig, Google’s director of research, speaking Monday at a panel discussion at Santa Clara University.
“We didn’t want to be in the position of having to hand over these kinds of records to the government,” he said.
I wonder if this matters at all. The records/data were created in China, and it seems to me that China could request them regardless. Of course, it would create an international conflict of law, which it seems Google is attempting to create. That, I think, will not go over well with the PRC. This one could get interesting.
Ah, I am not sure they would even need to ask Google to get what they want, they control the net and record all the http requests.
— amr
Interesting. So in the case of Yahoo and Hong Kong, the difference was they did NOT control the net? Or that Yahoo Mail was not making only http requests…?
“Of course, it would create an international conflict of law”. You say this like it is obvious, but it isn’t to this tired brain! What laws are you referring to?
If the records aren’t stored in China, the People’s Govt can “request” until they’re blue in the face, Google won’t be obliged to do anything.