Sergey Brin 126
genetic makeup (consisting of 23 pairs of chromosomes).[6] In a recent announcement at Google’s Zeitgeist
conference, he said he hoped that some day everyone would learn their genetic code in order to help doctors,
patients, and researchers analyze the data and try to repair bugs.[6]
Brin's mother, Eugenia, has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. In 2008, he decided to make a donation to the
University of Maryland School of Medicine, where his mother is being treated.[19] Brin used the services of
23andMe and discovered that although Parkinson's is generally not hereditary, both he and his mother possess a
mutation of the LRRK2 gene (G2019S) that puts the likelihood of his developing Parkinson's in later years between
20 and 80%.[6] When asked whether ignorance was not bliss in such matters, he stated that his knowledge means that
he can now take measures to ward off the disease. An editorial in The Economist magazine states that "Mr Brin
regards his mutation of LRRK2 as a bug in his personal code, and thus as no different from the bugs in computer
code that Google’s engineers fix every day. By helping himself, he can therefore help others as well. He considers
himself lucky. ... But Mr. Brin was making a much bigger point. Isn’t knowledge always good, and certainty always
better than ignorance?"[6]
Brin and his wife run The Brin Wojcicki Foundation.[20]
In November, 2011 Brin and his wife's foundation, The Brin Wojcicki Foundation, awarded 500,000 dollars to the
Wikimedia Foundation as it started its eighth annual fundraising campaign.[21]Censorship of Google in China
Remembering his youth and his family's reasons for leaving the Soviet Union, he "agonized over Google’s decision
to appease the communist government of China by allowing it to censor search engine results", but decided that the
Chinese would still be better off than without having Google available.[6] He explained his reasoning to Fortune
magazine:
"We felt that by participating there, and making our services more available, even if not to the 100 percent that
we ideally would like, that it will be better for Chinese web users, because ultimately they would get more
information, though not quite all of it."[22]
On January 12, 2010, Google reported a large cyber attack on its computers and corporate infrastructure that began a
month earlier, which included accessing numerous Gmail accounts and the theft of Google's intellectual property.
After the attack was determined to have originated in China, the company stated that it would no longer agree to
censor its search engine in China and may exit the country altogether. The New York Times reported that "a primary
goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists, but that the attack also
targeted 20 other large companies in the finance, technology, media and chemical sectors."[23][24] It was later
reported that the attack included "one of Google’s crown jewels, a password system that controls access by millions
of users worldwide."[25]
In late March, 2010, it officially discontinued its China-based search engine while keeping its uncensored Hong
Kong site in operation. Speaking for Google, Brin stated during an interview, "One of the reasons I am glad we are
making this move in China is that the China situation was really emboldening other countries to try and implement
their own firewalls."[26] During another interview with Spiegel, he added, "For us it has always been a discussion
about how we can best fight for openness on the Internet. We believe that this is the best thing that we can do for
preserving the principles of the openness and freedom of information on the Internet."[27]
While only a few large companies so far pledged their support for the move, many Internet "freedom proponents are
cheering the move," and it is "winning it praise in the U.S." from lawmakers.[26][28] Senator Byron Dorgan stated
that "Google's decision is a strong step in favor of freedom of expression and information."[29] And Congressman
Bob Goodlatte said, "I applaud Google for its courageous step to stop censoring search results on Google.com.
Google has drawn a line in the sand and is shining a light on the very dark area of individual liberty restrictions in
China."[30] From the business perspective, many recognize that the move is likely to affect Google's profits: "Google