Washington, June 11: Google has said it was troubled by new regulations in Vietnam that may allow the government to block access to websites and track the activities of Internet users.
“Internet users in Hanoi will soon find that they can’t reach certain sites when browsing the Web at local Internet cafes,” Google policy analyst Dorothy Chou said in a blog post.
Chou said Google’s concern stemmed from a regulation enacted in Vietnam in April that would require all retail Internet locations to install a particular application on their servers by 2011.
“The application will likely allow the Vietnamese government to block access to websites, as well as to track user activities,” Chou said.
“The implementation of an application like this one would choke off access to information for many in Hanoi — given how popular Internet cafes are among Internet users in Vietnam,” she said.
–PTI