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posted by martyb on Wednesday December 12 2018, @02:14PM   Printer-friendly
from the LMGTFY dept.

Google's Sundar Pichai was grilled on privacy, data collection, and China during congressional hearing

Google's CEO testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday where lawmakers grilled him on a wide range of issues, including potential political bias on its platforms, its plans for a censored search app in China and its privacy practices.

This is the first time Pichai has appeared before Congress since Google declined to send him or Alphabet CEO Larry Page to a hearing on foreign election meddling earlier this year. That slight sparked anger among senators who portrayed Google as trying to skirt scrutiny.

[...] Tuesday's hearing was titled "Transparency & Accountability: Examining Google and its Data Collection, Use, and Filtering Practices" and many representatives posed questions on whether or not Google's search results were biased against conservative points of view.

[...] Another topic that came up multiple times was Google's plan to launch a censored search engine in China. The Intercept first reported details of the project over the summer, which would block search results for queries that the Chinese government deemed sensitive, like "human rights" and "student protest" and link users' searches to their personal phone numbers. [...] "Right now, we have no plans to launch search in China," Pichai answered, adding that access to information is "an important human right."

Also at Bloomberg and The Hill.

See also: Sundar Pichai had to explain to Congress why Googling 'idiot' turns up pictures of Trump
Google CEO admits company must better address the spread of conspiracy theories on YouTube
Alex Jones, Roger Stone crash Google CEO hearing
Monopoly man watches disapprovingly as Congress yells at Google's CEO

Previously: Google Plans to Launch Censored Search Engine in China, Leaked Documents Reveal
Uproar at Google after News of Censored China Search App Breaks
"Senior Google Scientist" Resigns over Chinese Search Engine Censorship Project
Google Suppresses Internal Memo About China Censorship; Eric Schmidt Predicts Internet Split
Leaked Transcript Contradicts Google's Denials About Censored Chinese Search Engine
Senators Demand Answers About Google+ Breach; Project Dragonfly Undermines Google's Neutrality


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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday December 13 2018, @03:12PM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday December 13 2018, @03:12PM (#773972) Journal

    Yup, just an algorithm. Someone sat down, and decided, "We don't want to protray happy couples who are both white. We've got to send a message, so when anyone searches "white couple" they must get at least 20% black/white couples, and at least 35% or white/Asian and/or white/Hispanic. There must also be 10% of black couples, because black and white are so easily confused."

    Doing a search for black couples, I see black woman, black man, just as any rational person would expect. Scroll down the page a ways, there's a light skinned woman who I think might be white, scroll a little more, another who could pass for white, but has an authentic looking Afro, another woman who is very light skinned and can pass for white, down about four more rows, I see, clearly labeled, "Asian Black Couples" with a black man and a light skinned woman who might be any Asian race/nationality. One single white guy with a black woman looks very out of place on this page. That's with a page setup giving me 51 rows of 9 images each.

    But, there's no bias, it's just an algorithm. /sarcasm

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