Jack Poulson is one of several googlers to quit the company over Project Dragonfly, the company’s secret plan to launch a Chinese search tool that will incorporate state surveillance and censorship on behalf of China’s authoritarian government.
Now, Poulson has sent a letter to the US Senate detailing the internal workings of Project Dragonfly, confirming that the tool is designed to block such queries as “student protest” and “Nobel prize,” and to facilitate tracking users whose search history reveals an interest in politically sensitive topics.
Google confirmed that this product has been developed, but insisted that the product is “not close to launch.”
The letter alleges Google is working on:*
A prototype interface designed to allow a Chinese joint venture company to search for a given user’s search queries based on their phone number*
An extensive censorship blacklist developed in accordance with Chinese government demands. Among others, it contained the English term “human rights”, the Mandarin terms for ‘student protest’ and ‘Nobel prize’, and very large numbers of phrases involving ‘Xi Jinping’ and other members of the CCP*
Explicit code to ensure only Chinese government-approved air quality data would be returned in response to Chinese users’ search
Ex-Google employee warns of ‘disturbing’ China plans [Dave Lee/BBC]