ANSWERS: 1
  • I think so. "Outside China, Google blocks only websites with child abuse images and certain values from its search of ranges of numbers. The latter restriction, according to Google's worldwide policy counsel Andrew McLaughlin, tackles identity thieves using the search engine to trawl the web for credit card and government identification numbers, such as US social security numbers. It is still possible to search for individual numbers within these ranges, so owners can check these are not online. "Beyond that, we don't do affirmative policing," McLaughlin told an Oxford University seminar earlier this month. "That's for legal, and just value, reasons." However, localised Google services abide by the law of the relevant country. McLaughlin described a legally-enforced, secret blacklist run by Germany's BPjM, the country's Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons, as "troublingly free of the kind of checks and balances you would expect". Google.de complies, albeit with an announcement when links have been blocked. But although Google redirects users in Germany to Google.de through "geotargeting" (identifying your location from your internet address), it does not stop them switching to the uncensored Google.com; the link is on the front page (www.google.com/ncr)." http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2006/oct/19/guardianweeklytechnologysection

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