Jigsaw (company) explained

Jigsaw
Former Names:Google Ideas (2010–2015)
Type:Think tank
Founders:Eric Schmidt
Key People:Yasmin Green (CEO)
Location City:New York City
Location Country:United States

Jigsaw LLC (formerly Google Ideas)[1] is a technology incubator created by Google. It formerly operated as an independent subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.,[2] but came under Google management in February 2020.[3] Based in New York City, Jigsaw is dedicated to understanding global challenges and applying technological solutions. From "countering extremism", online censorship, and cyber-attacks to protecting access to information.[4] The current CEO is Yasmin Green.

History

Google Ideas

In 2010, Eric Schmidt approached Jared Cohen to lead Google Ideas as a "think-and-do tank" to research issues at the intersection of technology and geopolitics, and has worked on projects intended to protect activists and independent media from cyber-attacks. Ideas brought together a team of Google engineers, research scientists, product managers, and policy experts to address these issues.[5] The team also hosted a number of conferences, including the 2017 Conflict in a Connected World Roundtable Series, in partnership with the Council on Foreign Relations' Center of Preventative Action.[6]

Ideas came under scrutiny for its links with the US State Department[7] and its regime change activities.[8] [9]

Jigsaw

In February 2016, Eric Schmidt announced in a Medium post, the expansion of Google Ideas into a technology incubator named Jigsaw. According to Schmidt, the new name "reflects our belief that collaborative problem-solving yields the best solutions" and the team's mission "is 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". Jigsaw was expected to leverage more of Alphabet's engineering talent and resources to build more sophisticated products.[10] Jared Cohen, formerly with the Policy Planning Committee at the US State Department, was the CEO of Jigsaw until 2022.[11]

In January 2023, Alphabet announced about 12,000 employees being laid off. Citing conversations with anonymous former employees, Forbes reported the Jigsaw team of 50 was reduced by somewhere between a third and a half. The company did not disclose numbers or employees a reason but Jigsaw was not generating revenue.

Projects

Constitute

In 2013, Jigsaw (then known as Google Ideas) teamed up with researchers at the University of Texas and the University of Chicago to launch Constitute, an indexed repository of national constitutions. The objective of the project is to identify a coherent set of constitutional options and sample text for those writing constitutions. The site was one of the early uses of the Semantic Web as a data model. The project has undergone regular updates since 2013 and is used by scholars, citizens, and constitutional drafters.

Perspective

In February 2017, Jigsaw and Google launched the free Perspective API, "a new tool for web publishers to identify toxic comments that can undermine a civil exchange of ideas".[12] Using machine learning technology, Perspective offers a score from zero to 100 on how similar new comments are to others previously identified as toxic, defined as how likely a comment is to make someone leave a conversation. Publishers can use Perspective in a number of ways, from offering readers instant feedback on the toxicity of their comments to giving readers the power to filter conversations based on the level of toxicity they'd like to see. Jigsaw claims "its AI can immediately spit out an assessment of the phrase’s 'toxicity' more accurately than any keyword blacklist, and faster than any human moderator".[13] Perspective's launch partners included The New York Times, The Guardian, The Economist and Wikipedia.[14] The research on Wikipedia started discussion about Artificial intelligence in Wikimedia projects.

In June 2017, The New York Times announced that as a result of the partnership with Jigsaw, the Times will offer comments on all top stories and scale comments to 80% of its articles by the end of the year.[15]

Project Shield

Project Shield is a free anti-distributed denial-of-service (anti-DDoS) service that is offered by Jigsaw to websites that have "media, elections, and human rights-related content."[16] The main goal of the project is to serve "small, under-resourced news sites that are vulnerable to the web’s growing epidemic of DDoS attacks", according to team lead George Conard.[17] It is similar to services offered by companies like Cloudflare. Google announced Project Shield at their Ideas Conference on 21 October 2013. The service was initially only offered to trusted testers, but on 25 February 2016, Google opened up the service to any qualifying website.[18] The service works by having the website use Google's IPs, and traffic is routed through a Google-owned reverse proxy that identifies and filters malicious traffic.[19]

Project Shield provides news, human rights, and election monitoring sites with protection from DDoS cyber-attacks by a system of caching (storing the data from the protected website to reduce load on the site). It also filters traffic to thwart DDoS attacks. Project Shield is built on Google Cloud Platform.[20] It is provided free of charge to the qualifying websites of independent journalists, human rights, and elections monitoring websites to protect them regardless of their location and Project Shield as of 2016 October has users in Europe, Asia, North America, and Africa.[21] Project Shield rescued Brian Krebs's security blog from a then-unprecedented DDoS attack that knocked the website entirely offline.[22]

In March 2017, Jigsaw launched a campaign called "Protect Your Election", a suite of free tools to help protect access to information during elections. These tools include Shield, Password Alert,[23] and two-step verification.[24] [25]

Redirect Method

The Redirect Method is an open source methodology developed by Jigsaw in partnership, with Moonshot CVE,[26] that leverages Google's AdWords platform and YouTube to target potential ISIS recruits and dissuade them from joining the group.[27]

Jigsaw claims that during a pilot project conducted in early 2016, its advertising was three to four times more effective than a normal campaign, and "those who clicked spent more than twice as long viewing the most effective playlists than the best estimates of how long people view YouTube as a whole." Jigsaw published the detailed steps for the methodology under a Creative Commons license on a GitHub repository. Initially piloted against ISIS, the Redirect Method has since been deployed against white supremacists[28] and disinformation[29] [30] in partnership with groups such as the Anti-Defamation League[31] and Moonshot CVE.

Outline

See main article: Outline VPN. Outline is an open-source tool that lets news organizations provide their network of journalists safer access to the internet,[32] powered by Shadowsocks. Jigsaw claims the VPN software can be set up on one's own server in a matter of minutes, even if the user is not technically savvy. According to WIRED, "Outline aims to provide an alternative to, on the one hand, stronger anonymity tools like Tor that slow down web browsing by bouncing connections through multiple encrypted hops around the world and, on the other hand, commercial VPNs that can be expensive, and also put users' private information and internet history at risk." WIRED adds that because administrators can add unlimited secret keys, "Outline [is] an easy way to run a VPN for an entire organization, like a group of activists or journalists." Another feature is that Outline requires minimal upkeep, as "a feature called Watchtower automatically checks for security updates and installs them."[33]

Intra

Intra, launched 3 October 2018, is a DNS over HTTPS client[34] for Android versions 4.0 and above that helps protect against DNS manipulation attacks[35] and SNI sniffing attacks typically employed by Internet Service Providers to censor websites, apps, and games.[36]

Other projects

Other Jigsaw projects include Detox, Sideways Dictionary, Password Alert, Unfiltered.news, Digital Attack Map, and Montage (graduated to Storyful).

In 2016, Jigsaw worked with the Wikimedia Foundation on Detox, a project using Machine learning to help better understand online harassment on Wikipedia, with application to other web platforms.[37] The tool was removed in 2019, however, due to concerns about its accuracy.

In March 2017, Jigsaw partnered with The Washington Post to launch Sideways Dictionary, a community-driven collection of analogies to explain complex tech jargon.[38] Sideways Dictionary is available as a Chrome extension and on The Washington Post.[39]

Password Alert helps protect against phishing attacks;[40] according to WIRED, "the company developed it for Syrian activists targeted by government-friendly hackers, but when it proved effective, it was rolled out to all of Google’s users."[41]

Unfiltered.news "uses Google News data to show users what topics are being under-reported or are popular in regions around the world",[42] and the Digital Attack Map displays the top digital attacks in the world in real time.

Montage is a program that "lets war correspondents and nonprofits crowdsource the analysis of YouTube videos to track conflicts and gather evidence of human rights violations." In May 2016, Jigsaw announced it had partnered with Vice News on a five-part documentary series called Blackout to examine free expression around the world.[43]

Jigsaw also helped develop CopCast, an open-source project that can turn any Android phone into a body-worn camera system for law enforcement. In June 2017, USA Today reported that the Jersey City Police Department will scale this technology to more than 250 officers.[44]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: GOOGLE IDEAS BECOMES JIGSAW . Schmidt . Eric . 2016-02-16 . . 2017-02-14 . 10 August 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200810231300/https://medium.com/jigsaw/google-ideas-becomes-jigsaw-bcb5bd08c423 . live .
  2. Web site: Mohan . Pavithra . 2016-02-16 . Google Ideas Think Tank To Become Tech Incubator Called Jigsaw . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20200808031035/https://www.fastcompany.com/3056790/google-ideas-think-tank-to-become-tech-incubator-called-jigsaw . 8 August 2020 . 2017-02-14 . Fast Company.
  3. Web site: Google Swallows Another Alphabet Unit - Jigsaw. 2020-02-10. The Information. 2020-02-11. 9 November 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201109164050/https://www.theinformation.com/articles/google-swallows-another-alphabet-unit-jigsaw. live.
  4. Web site: Google Ideas to become Jigsaw tech incubator . Guynn . Jessica . 2016-02-16 . . 2017-02-14 . 16 August 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200816234630/https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/02/16/google-ideas-jigsaw-eric-schmidt-jared-cohen/80474858/ . live .
  5. Web site: Google spins off, rebrands think tank . McCabe . David . 2016-02-17 . . 2017-02-14 . 21 November 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20181121192122/https://thehill.com/policy/technology/269670-google-spins-off-rebrands-think-tank . live .
  6. Web site: Conflict in a Connected World Roundtable Series . Stares . Paul B. . . 2017-02-14 . 9 February 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170209175243/http://www.cfr.org/projects/world/conflict-in-a-connected-world-roundtable-series/pr1649 . live .
  7. Web site: Clinton Emails Reveal the US Govt Used Google as a Geopolitical Weapon to Overthrow Assad . The Free Thought Project . 5 October 2018 . 22 March 2016 . 25 November 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201125194834/http://thefreethoughtproject.com/clinton-emails-expose-google-geopolitical-weapon-overthrow-assad/ . live .
  8. Web site: StratforLeaks: Google Ideas Director Involved in 'Regime Change' . Al-Saadi . Yazan . 2012-03-14 . Al-Akhbar English . 2017-02-14 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120329130644/http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/stratforleaks-google-ideas-director-involved-%E2%80%98regime-change%E2%80%99 . 29 March 2012 . dead .
  9. Web site: Assange: Google Is Not What It Seems . Assange . Julian . Julian Assange . 2014-10-10 . . 2017-02-14 . 4 January 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210104200709/https://www.newsweek.com/assange-google-not-what-it-seems-279447 . live .
  10. Web site: Inside Alphabet's Jigsaw, the powerful tech incubator that could reshape geopolitics . Wark . Lucy . 2016-11-29 . . 2017-02-14 . 8 November 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201108134813/http://qz.com/846836/inside-google-jigsaw-the-powerful-tech-incubator-that-wants-to-reshape-geopolitics/ . live .
  11. News: Thomas Brewster . Richard Nieva . February 3, 2023 . Google Cuts Company Protecting People From Surveillance To A 'Skeleton Crew,' Say Laid Off Workers . .
  12. News: Google Cousin Develops Technology to Flag Toxic Online Comments. Wakabayashi. Daisuke. 2017-02-23. The New York Times. 2017-03-13. 0362-4331. 27 August 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200827002541/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/23/technology/google-jigsaw-monitor-toxic-online-comments.html. live.
  13. Now Anyone Can Deploy Google's Troll-Fighting AI. Greenberg. Andy. WIRED. 2017-03-13. 8 January 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210108024200/https://www.wired.com/2017/02/googles-troll-fighting-ai-now-belongs-world/. live.
  14. News: Google's plan to make talk less toxic. Cellan-Jones. Rory. 2017-02-23. BBC News. 2017-03-13. 12 November 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201112031421/https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39063863. live.
  15. News: The Times Sharply Increases Articles Open for Comments, Using Google's Technology. Etim. Bassey. 2017-06-13. The New York Times. 2017-06-27. 0362-4331. 10 December 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201210170652/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/13/insider/have-a-comment-leave-a-comment.html. live.
  16. Web site: Google launches new anti-DDoS service called 'Project Shield' . Brandom . Russell . 2013-10-21 . . 2017-02-14 . 13 December 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201213072852/https://www.theverge.com/2013/10/21/4862724/google-launches-new-anti-ddos-service-called-project-shield . live .
  17. Google Wants to Save News Sites From Cyberattacks—For Free . Greenberg . Andy . 2016-02-24 . . 2017-02-14 . 5 December 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201205173957/https://www.wired.com/2016/02/google-wants-save-news-sites-cyberattacks-free/ . live .
  18. Web site: Google opens DDoS-thwarting Project Shield service to all news and human rights websites . Sawers . Paul . 2016-02-25 . . 2017-02-14 . 8 November 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201108113612/http://venturebeat.com/2016/02/25/google-opens-ddos-thwarting-project-shield-service-to-all-news-and-human-rights-websites/ . live .
  19. Web site: Google's Project Shield helps any news site beat DDoS attacks . Ingraham . Nathan . 2016-02-24 . . 2017-02-14 . 15 June 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190615082208/http://www.engadget.com/2016/02/24/google-project-shield-battling-ddos-attacks/ . live .
  20. Web site: General FAQs - Project Shield Help . Google Help . 30 January 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161026170423/https://support.google.com/projectshield/answer/6358588?hl=en&ref_topic=6358107 . 26 October 2016 . dead .
  21. Web site: FAQs for news publishers - Project Shield Help . Google Help . 30 January 2017 . 26 October 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161026171656/https://support.google.com/projectshield/answer/6358873?hl=en&ref_topic=6358107 . live .
  22. Web site: Google Rescues a Security Blogger Under Attack from Hackers . Roberts . Jeff John . 2016-09-27 . . 2017-02-14 . 6 March 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190306140658/http://fortune.com/2016/09/27/google-krebs-project-shield-hack/ . live .
  23. Web site: Password Alert . 5 October 2018 . 22 December 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201222012733/https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/password-alert/noondiphcddnnabmjcihcjfbhfklnnep . live .
  24. Web site: Google 2-Step Verification . 5 October 2018 . 19 December 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20151219002342/https://www.google.com/landing/2step/ . live .
  25. A Cybersecurity Arsenal That'll Help 'Protect Your Election' WIRED. Wired. 2017-06-27. 11 November 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201111161711/https://www.wired.com/2017/03/cybersecurity-arsenal-thatll-help-protect-election/. live. Newman. Lily Hay.
  26. Web site: Bringing new Redirect Method features to YouTube. Official YouTube Blog. en. 2020-05-04. 13 June 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200613131557/https://youtube.googleblog.com/2017/07/bringing-new-redirect-method-features.html. live.
  27. Google's Clever Plan to Stop Aspiring ISIS Recruits . Greenberg . Andy . 2016-09-07 . . 2017-02-14 . 25 December 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201225041343/https://www.wired.com/2016/09/googles-clever-plan-stop-aspiring-isis-recruits/ . live .
  28. News: MacFarquhar. Neil. 2019-12-30. White Extremism Faces a Subversive Foe Online: Google Ads. en-US. The New York Times. 2020-05-01. 0362-4331. 12 September 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200912145504/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/30/us/white-supremacy-moonshot-google-ads.html. live.
  29. Web site: Software Used To Stop ISIS And KKK To Be Used Against Anti-Vaxxers. unilad.co.uk. en. 2020-05-01. 23 July 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190723132606/https://www.unilad.co.uk/technology/software-used-to-stop-isis-and-kkk-to-be-used-against-anti-vaxxers/. live.
  30. News: Quinn. Ben. 2019-07-21. Anti-extremism software to be used to tackle vaccine disinformation. en-GB. The Guardian. 2020-05-01. 0261-3077. 24 November 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201124100913/https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jul/21/software-used-against-online-extremists-to-tackle-anti-vaxxers. live.
  31. Web site: Redirecting hate: ADL hopes Googling for KKK or jihad will take you down a different path. Baig. Edward C.. USA Today. en-US. 2020-05-04. 7 November 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201107234949/https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2019/06/24/adl-fighting-kkk-jihadism-by-redirecting-online-searches/1437331001/. live.
  32. Web site: Introducing Outline: Making It Safer To Break The News. Jigsaw. 2018-03-20. Medium. 2018-03-20. 9 January 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210109001845/https://medium.com/jigsaw/introducing-outline-making-it-safer-to-break-the-news-feda4d047b4. live.
  33. Alphabet's 'Outline' Software Lets Anyone Run a Homebrew VPN. WIRED. 2018-03-20. 9 November 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201109014615/https://www.wired.com/story/alphabet-outline-vpn-software/. live.
  34. Web site: Intra . 29 September 2020 . 8 March 2019 . https://archive.today/20190308163213/https://getintra.org/ . live .
  35. News: techcrunch.com . Google's cyber unit Jigsaw introduces Intra, a new security app dedicated to busting censorship . 29 September 2020 . 29 September 2020 . https://archive.today/20200929181808/https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/03/googles-cyber-unit-jigsaw-introduces-intra-a-security-app-dedicated-to-busting-censorship/ . live .
  36. Evidence of SNI-based blocking of @charter97org in #Belarus: you get a TCP RST after the ClientHello with SNI = http://charter97.org, but not with SNI = http://example.com. You can use https://getintra.org on Android to bypass the blocking. . vinifortuna . 1304189371688660992 . 10 September 2020 . 29 September 2020 . 21 September 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200921165545/https://twitter.com/vinifortuna/status/1304189371688660992 . live .
  37. Web site: Inside Wikipedia's Attempt to Use Artificial Intelligence to Combat Harassment. Smellie. Sarah. Vice. 2017-02-17. 2019-06-22. 12 November 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201112020400/https://www.vice.com/en/article/aeyvxz/wikipedia-jigsaw-google-artificial-intelligence. live.
  38. News: Alphabet Built An Urban Dictionary For Tech Jargon. 2017-03-14. Co.Design. 2017-03-14. 19 December 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191219094304/https://www.fastcompany.com/3068933/alphabet-is-building-an-urban-dictionary-for-tech-jargon. live.
  39. Web site: Jigsaw and The Washington Post try to explain tech jargon with their new Sideways Dictionary. Ha. Anthony. TechCrunch. 14 March 2017 . 2017-03-14. 24 October 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201024151451/https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/14/sideways-dictionary/. live.
  40. Web site: Password Alert: Google's new free tool to prevent phishing attacks . Hackett . Robert . 2015-04-29 . . 2017-02-14 . 3 February 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190203201411/http://fortune.com/2015/04/29/google-password-alert-phishing/ . live .
  41. Inside Google's Internet Justice League and Its AI-Powered War on Trolls. Greenberg. Andy. 2016-09-19. Wired. 2017-02-14. 24 December 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201224055602/https://www.wired.com/2016/09/inside-googles-internet-justice-league-ai-powered-war-trolls/. live.
  42. Web site: A new data viz tool shows what stories are being undercovered in countries around the world . Lichterman . Joseph . 2016-03-18 . . 2017-02-14 . 8 November 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201108101632/https://www.niemanlab.org/2016/03/a-new-data-viz-tool-shows-what-stories-are-being-undercovered-in-countries-around-the-world/ . live .
  43. Web site: Vice teams with Alphabet incubator Jigsaw on doc series 'Blackout' . Hadas . Gold . Hadas Gold . 2016-05-13 . . 2017-02-14 . 24 October 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201024152509/https://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2016/05/vice-google-jigsaw-blackout-documentary-223164 . live .
  44. News: Who needs body cameras? Police testing cellphone cameras. USA Today. 2017-06-27. 11 November 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201111231339/https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/06/25/who-needs-body-cameras-police-testing-cellphone-cameras/426859001/. live.

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