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A Google executive has for the first time publicly confirmed the existence of the "Project Dragonfly" company to create new search tools for China, during a tense audition with US lawmakers on online privacy.
"There is a Dragonfly project," Keith Enright, Google's privacy officer, said Wednesday in response to a question from Senator Ted Cruz.
"I do not know what's in range or out of reach" for Dragonfly, Enright added. "We are not about to launch a research product in China."
If such a service was launched, Mr. Enright stated that his team would be "very actively engaged to ensure that it goes through the process of reviewing confidentiality".
After the revelation of the Dragonfly project by the Intercept news site last month, Google's potential return to China after its withdrawal in 2010 has caused concern and condemnation both inside and out. Inside the company.
Hundreds of Alphabet employees have protested against the idea that Google could censor search results and potentially give Chinese authorities access to personal data.
"We design and launch products to leverage the benefits of technology around the world," Enright said, but any relaunch in China would be "consistent with our privacy and data protection values." ".
"I'm proud of Google's track record of human rights," he added.
Mr. Enright was forced to argue for what many see as potential breaches of Google's privacy values, while advocating for new federal data protection legislation in the US that would replace state-by-state rules.
Despite opposition from Silicon Valley companies, California has recently adopted new data protection legislation following the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Mr. Enright said that Google had already spent "hundreds of years of human time" in complying with GDPR.
Along with Google, officials from Apple, Amazon, Twitter, AT & T and Charter Communications have said they support federal legislation – although with various qualifiers, they do not want rules binding national standards for consumers.
"We believe comprehensive federal legislation is needed to help protect consumers," said Bud Tribble, Apple's vice president of software technology. "I have tons of information about my life in my pocket right now. . . This will only increase.
There was support for a more consistent definition of what constitutes "personal information" that should be regulated, although Internet companies have retreated to adopt the GDPR's European approach, which includes the data collected.
Technology and telecommunication companies have been reluctant to entrust too many new powers and regulatory authorities to the US Federal Trade Commission, which is the country's primary privacy watchdog.
"We do not support unhindered discretion in any agency," said AT & T Policy Officer Len Cali, saying it was up to Congress to "fix the safeguards". .
Sen. John Thune, chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, said Wednesday that technology companies' responses included "a lot of qualified yes and unskilled" when asked to make the FTC more difficult. "Does that make them maybes?"
For nearly three hours of questions, senators asked Apple and Google about apps for their smartphones that collected data from kids, and Amazon about its facial recognition technology. In addition to Google, Apple and Amazon have also been pressured by how they must change the way they operate their services to comply with the rules in China.
Andrew DeVore, Amazon's associate legal advisor, admitted that his Amazon Web Services unit was "differently structured in China," but denied giving up control of its operations to local partners.
"We build our software for customers, not countries," said Tribble. "Confidentiality is one of our core values."
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