Google unveils services promoting free expression

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Google Inc will begin to shield news organizations and human rights groups from cyberattacks as part of a new package of services designed to support “free expression” on the Web, the internet giant said yesterday.

At a presentation in New York, the company also unveiled a new technology called uProxy that allows citizens under some regimes to bypass government censorship or surveillance software to surf the Web. The software will be available for Google’s Chrome browser and Firefox but not for rival Microsoft Corp’s Internet Explorer, at least initially.

The world’s No 1 search engine presented the two services – as well as a new map that highlights cyberattacks taking place around the world in real time – as some of the most significant software products to emerge from Google Ideas, a think-tank established by the company in 2010.