The Intercept reports Google developed a search engine prototype for China that would link users’ searches to their personal phone numbers, allowing the government to easily monitor and remove content. Code-named Dragonfly, the search engine was developed for Android devices and has been criticized by human rights groups for Google’s contribution to state-sponsored censorship. The Intercept obtained details showing the prototype includes a censorship blacklist, and sources familiar with the project say the search engine also replaces weather and air pollution data with information provided by an unnamed source in Beijing. Human Rights Watch Senior Internet Researcher Cynthia Wong said, “Linking searches to a phone number would make it much harder for people to avoid the kind of overreaching government surveillance that is pervasive in China.”
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