Google’s recent unveiling of three services to promote free expression on the web has been hailed as a major advance in protecting dissidents and progressives working under autocratic regimes, but in reality the services may be less than touted.
Google Idea, the Google “think/do tank” based in New York City, announced October 21 that it is developing uProxy, Project Shield and Digital Attack Map.
–uProxy allows persons in countries with a repressive government to evade censorship and surveillance by using a web connection of a friend outside the country.
–Project Shield, now being tested, will protect nonprofits from being inundated with traffic (distributed denial of service attacks) intended to shut down their website.
–Digital Attack Map maps attacks on websites around the world in “live data visualization.”
In an announcement of the services, Google Ideas’ Jared Cohen said, “Today one out of every three people lives in a society that is severely censored. Online barriers can include everything from filters that block content to targeted attacks designed to take down websites. For many people, these obstacles are more than an inconvenience—they represent full-scale repression.”
Google possesses the resources, computer power and security capabilities to play a significant role in protecting small websites from shutdown. Danny O’Brien of the Electronic Freedom Foundation says that it will be interesting to see if Google will be willing to deal with repeated shutdowns of small operations. Anyone wanting to use the services must apply for them, and O’Brien says the services are not cost-free to Google.
The real test of Google’s free expression intentions will be in seeing whether the company is willing to defend websites with controversial viewpoints that are unpopular and even offensive to many of Google’s customers, says O’Brien.
O’Brien sees a lot of advantage to Google mounting anti-censorship initiatives. Google is saddled with censorship issues around the world and can realize public relations gains by acting against it. O’Brien points out that Cloud Flare, a website protection company, already offers free service to companies suffering distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.
Cloud Flare is able to offer this service at no cost to small websites because it generates income from protecting big commercial sites. Google says its similar service is already in use experimentally. The company says that a Syrian website warning of scud missile attacks from Assad’s forces has already used Project Shield.
O’Brien is similarly skeptical about the value of uProxy, which establishes an encrypted connection between users to set up a secure internet connection. Citizens in repressive countries are already using this way of getting around censors but it is never a sure thing. “Cohen says it would be impossible to trace people using uProxy, but it simply is not true. There are no guarantees,” says O’Brien.
O’Brien thinks it is likely that most users of uProxy will not be foreign dissidents seeking to evade surveillance and censorship, but kids in the U.S. seeking to escape detection by their parents. uProxy remains in development.
The Digital Attack Map is useful as a more visual and dynamic presentation of information previously available from Arbor Networks. The map will provide easy access to trends and patterns of oppression. –BY DONAL BROWN