J is for Jigsaw! Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Alphabet Inc., the holding company which Google is a subsidiary off, has announced that Google Ideas, the New-York based policy and web think thank has been renamed to Jigsaw, with the Jigsaw team’s mission to use technology to tackle the toughest geopolitical challenges, from countering violent extremism to thwarting online censorship to mitigating the threats associated with digital attacks
Jared Cohen who has run Google Ideas since its inception, and who was previously with the Policy Planning Committee at the United States State Department, will now serve as the president of Jigsaw. He will also continue to serve as an advisor to Schmidt.
“We created Google Ideas five years ago as an in-house think tank to explore how technology might help the next five billion people coming online for the first time. Many of the newest Internet users are coming online in societies where censorship, corruption, or violence are daily realities.”
– Eric Schmidt, Executive Chairman of Alphabet Inc.
Currently, the Jigsaw team has many products which aim to ensure people can always access information, the key product being Project Shield, a technology that uses Google’s existing infrastructure to protect small scale websites from DDOS attacks by mitigating the damage. Password Alert is another product that helps protect against phishing. Countering criminal activities such as money laundering and human trafficking will be other initiatives of the team.
Google Ideas has gotten flak in the past due to its link with the US State Department and for engaging in “regime change” activities.
“The world is as complex as ever, but we believe that a unique combination of principled research and technology expertise can help put the puzzle together—one piece at a time.”
Source; Medium
