![]() ![]() Of the three biggest cloud operators in the world today, Google is likely to be the first to set up a data center there. Up until recently, Saudi Arabia has lagged behind in cloud services but industry insiders say it is now being seen as a major, new opportunity. US tech giant Google is one of the three leading cloud services providers in the world the others are Amazon and Microsoft Image: Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto/picture alliance Security concerns ![]() You simply access them using the Internet.Ī "cloud region" is really just a euphemism for the location where all those other computers are, in what is known as a data center. The software that lets you play music or post images is being run on larger computers in another location. More private and business users now operate their online devices using "the cloud." What this basically means is that your data - things like pictures, documents, music, emails and other messages - is stored somewhere other than the computer or phone in front of you. But what are the technical concerns around what are known as cloud services? The political issues around setting up a data center in Saudi Arabia are clear. When responding to DW's inquiries, Google did not directly address the topic the company sent an online link to its blog post from December 2021 announcing the Saudi data center in Dammam would be going ahead. The proposal asked that Google "commission a report assessing the siting of Google cloud data centers in countries of significant human rights concern." Data centers use a wide variety of physical security measures to prevent intruders from entering Image: Google Handout/dpa/picture-allianceĪlthough just over 57% of independent shareholders at the meeting voted for the resolution to be adopted earlier this month, Google's executive management outrank them in voting power and the resolution was rejected. Most recently, a group of activists supported by Access Now filed a resolution so Google's investors could vote on the Saudi controversy at the annual general meeting of Google's parent company Alphabet, which was held on June 1. "A cloud center in Saudi Arabia will risk lives," Laura Okkonen of Access Now, the online rights organization that has been a prime mover behind the campaign, told DW. "This disturbing new step by Google raises … fears that this cloud center could leverage more power to the government of Saudi Arabia in further facilitating human rights abuses," said a 2021 letter signed by 31 human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, the Oxford Internet Institute and Human Rights Watch. Given the two actors involved, the reaction from human rights organizations and digital privacy advocates has not been surprising. Now Google says it wants to set up a "cloud region" in Saudi Arabia. Despite past challenges, Google still has a presence in China, working mostly with local partners to provide its services Image: Bai Kelin/dpa/HPIC/picture alliance Despite that, it was only in 2019 that the US company publicly confirmed it had abandoned a secret project code-named Dragonfly, a search engine created especially for China, that would filter out results about human rights, democracy, religion and political protest. Google then withdrew from the Chinese market. Then, between 20, Google was targeted by "a far-reaching hacking attack known as Operation Aurora that targeted everything from Google's intellectual property to the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists," science publication MIT Technology Review reported in December 2018. ![]() When the company first introduced its search engine to the Chinese market in 2006, it was criticized by activists for censoring search results critical of the Chinese government. But it has also had some noteworthy run-ins with authoritarian leaders. Part of US company Alphabet Inc., Google regularly boasts about how carefully it protects users' data. The online giant has the most popular search engine and most-used, web-based email service in the world. His case is believed to be connected to the government's infiltration of Twitter.Īnd then there's Google. In 2019, two former Saudi employees of Twitter in the US were charged with using the popular social media platform to unmask critics of the Saudi government.Īnd last year, a Saudi aid worker who had used a Twitter account to make jokes about his government was jailed for 20 years. In 2018, the country's government reportedly used the notorious spy software Pegasus on devices belonging to the family of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi dissident and journalist who was killed that year in a gruesome assassination allegedly orchestrated by the government. Saudi Arabia doesn't exactly have a positive track record when it comes to digital espionage. ![]()
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