June 14th, 2009

The Chinese government institution that requires personal-computer makers to ship Internet filtering software with their PCs, has defended the plan due to concerns that it could be used for political censorship or create privacy or security risks. That’s why China gets protest such as those which we report “China Receives Protests on Software Censor” on some few days ago.

Only two days after the regulation - which originally was disclosed quietly to PC makers last month - became public, state-run media on Wednesday reported by quoting a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Industry that users will have a choice whether to install the filtering software, called Green Dam-Youth Escort, and that it will not be used to collect user data.

Separately, state-run English-language newspaper China Daily said quoting Liu Zhengrong, deputy chief of the Internet Affairs Bureau of China’s State Council Information Office, that the software is designed to filter Internet pornography and that is the only purpose of it.

The statements were the first public comments from Chinese officials who oversee the Internet about the software plan, which was reported Monday by The Wall Street Journal. The software has drawn concerns from computer-industry executives, the US government and free-speech advocates, who say it could open up computers to privacy breaches, hacking or further censorship of the Internet.

In a statement Tuesday, four US technology-industry associations urged the Chinese government to reconsider implementing its new mandatory filtering software requirement.

“We believe there should be an open and healthy dialogue on how parental control software can be offered in the market in ways that ensure privacy, system reliability, freedom of expression, the free flow of information, security and user choice,” said the statement, released by the Information Technology Industry Council, the Software & Information Industry Association, the Telecommunications Industry Association and TechAmerica.

Tim Morse, chief financial officer of the chip manucaturer Altera, has been appointed Yahoo’s new chief financial officer to replace Blake Jorgensen, the current finance chief, whose plans to leave were announced in February .

Morse joins Yahoo while investors keep looking for indications that the company can go through the problems that have shadowed it for more than two years. Many still expect Yahoo to set up partnership with Microsoft on Internet search, to make it more capable to compete with Google.

He spent approximately two years at Altera that produces chips for communications, industrial and consumer applications. Before joining the Silicon Valley company, he spent 15 years at General Electric in several different executive positions.

He is the latest executive Yahoo has hired from the industry outside the Internet. Others include Elisa Steele, the chief marketing officer, who previously worked at NetApp, and Jeff Russakow, senior vice president for consumer advocacy, who came from the security software maker Symantec.

Morse has a confirmed ability to render strategy into structure, process, and execution, and Yahoo is pleased that he will be joining the company’s leadership team to help trigger Yahoo’s growth. With his passion for operational finance, global experience, and expertise simplifying complex organizations and managing growth, Morse is a natural fit for Yahoo, the company said.

He will start to work at Yahoo on June 17, but he will not become chief financial officer until July 1, about one week after Yahoo’s annual shareholder meeting.