Yahoo integrates flickr even more, Thomas Hawk reports…
…and, the shareholder vote on China and censorship fails. It would, given it seemed black and white – either go into China, or not.
Oh, and btw, Google is talking about data retention, privacy, and policy again here. This is tedious, seemingly. But not worth ignoring.
The shareholder resolution wasn’t as “black and white” as you say, but that perspective was precisely how Google management tried to frame the issue. David Drummond, SVP of Corporate Development, said as much, but that doesn’t make it so.
Read the resolution and decide for yourself.
“Therefore, be it resolved, that shareholders request that management institute policies to help protect freedom of access to the Internet which would include the following minimum standards:
1) Data that can identify individual users should not be hosted in Internet restricting countries, where political speech can be treated as a crime by the legal system.
2) The company will not engage in pro-active censorship.
3) The company will use all legal means to resist demands for censorship. The company will only comply with such demands if required to do so through legally binding procedures.
4) Users will be clearly informed when the company has acceded to legally binding government requests to filter or otherwise censor content that the user is trying to access.
5) Users should be informed about the company’s data retention practices, and the ways in which their data is shared with third parties.
6) The company will document all cases where legally-binding censorship requests have been complied with, and that information will be publicly available.”