More than 500 engineers, designers, managers and other staff from across global Google offices have signed an open letter at Medium.com[1] calling on the search engine to stop their Dragonfly project and for company leaders to “commit to transparency, clear communication, and real accountability.”
As we reported last month[2]…
Google’s project Dragonfly first came to light in August via The Intercept and their reports surrounding leaked documents containing details about the project[3]. In a nutshell, the project looked to be a fresh attempt by Google to re-enter the Chinese search market since having been blocked by the state back in 2010.
Dragonfly was speculated to be taking the shape of a mobile search engine. This is unsurprising, as more than 97% of internet users in China go online via mobile devices (according to CNNIC) and it is in this vertical that the industry is seeing most disruption from companies such as Shenma, Sogou and Haosou.
What was surprising were the subsequent leaked details from The Intercept and other sources hinting that Dragonfly users would be forced to sign-in to make searches, with IP addresses and phone numbers being linked to their activities too. It is also expected that the service would be censored in order to adhere to the country’s ‘cyber sovereignty’ laws – and, an as yet unknown, domestic partner would also have access to this customer data.
Consequently, there was significant uproar among many Google employees. On August 20th, senior research scientist Jack Poulson left the company and published his lengthy resignation letter online[4]. ‘I believe that Google is largely composed of altruistic employees,’