Google, China create search engine that tracks, censors searches and links them to users' phone numbers

Source: Washington Examiner | September 15, 2018 | Katelyn Caralle

A prototype of a censored search engine that links users’ queries to their personal phone numbers is the result of a collaboration between Google and China.

This technology would make it easier for the Communist Party of China to monitor people and what they are searching, the Intercept reported Friday.

Dragonfly, the code name for the new search engine, was designed for Android devices.

The search engine would remove information that the Chinese government deems sensitive, like content regarding political dissidents, free speech, democracy, human rights, and protests, in something called a censorship blacklist.

The blacklist includes the terms “human rights,” “student protest,” and “Nobel Prize,” among other terms in Mandarin, the language the majority of Chinese people speak.

Sources familiar with the Google project told Intercept that by linking searches to phone numbers, people seeking information banned by the Chinese government could be at risk for interrogation or detention.

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