Google ‘may end China operations over Gmail breaches’
A Google investigation found several e-mail accounts had been accessed
Internet search company Google says it may end operations in China over alleged breaches of the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.
It said in a blog post it had detected a “highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China”.
“A primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists”, it added.
Google did not specifically accuse the Chinese government.
But the company said it was “no longer willing to continue censoring our results” on its Chinese search engine, as the government requires.
Google said the decision could force it to shut down its Chinese site and its offices in the country.
The company said its investigation into the attack found two Gmail accounts appeared to have been accessed.
However, activity was limited to account information such as the date the account was created and subject line, rather than e-mail content, it said.
It was also discovered the accounts of dozens of US, China and Europe-based Gmail users, who are “advocates of human rights in China”, appeared to have been “routinely accessed by third parties”.
It said these accounts had not been accessed through any security breach at Google, but “most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on users’ computers”.
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When push comes to shove, Google trails and is unwelcome in China, so closing shop is not entirely a human rights matter.