Google CEO Sundar Pinchai Faces Lawmakers Skeptical Over Privacy, Alleged Anti-Conservative Bias--Update

By John D. McKinnon and Douglas MacMillan

WASHINGTON -- Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai deflected questions about anti-conservative bias on the world's largest search engine as he made a long-awaited first public appearance before lawmakers who have grown increasingly skeptical of Silicon Valley.

Appearing at a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Mr. Pichai fielded tough questions about Google's data-privacy practices and its handling of disinformation campaigns by foreign actors. Much of the discussion, however, focused on what Republicans see as efforts to suppress conservative voices across the company's online services -- allegations that Mr. Pichai repeatedly denied.

"We use a robust methodology to reflect what is being said about any given topic at any given time," Mr. Pichai said. "I can assure you we do it without regards to political ideology."

The hearing highlighted the difficulty the Alphabet Inc. unit faces in addressing the criticism that its search results and other products reflect potential biases from its largely liberal workforce. Google doesn't disclose many details about how its algorithms determine search results out of concern those results could be gamed or copied.

The questions echoed concerns raised by politicians in recent months including President Trump, who in August accused Google of elevating critical news stories about his presidency at the expense of friendly conservative voices.

During the hearing, Mr. Pichai pointed out as proof of Google's impartiality that its search engine frequently displays negative news stories about its own company.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California made it clear in his opening statement at Tuesday's hearing that Republicans are focused on what he termed a "widening gap of distrust" between Silicon Valley and the American people.

Several lawmakers raised concern about Google's handling of user data, following the company's disclosure on Monday of a privacy bug that exposed the personal data of 52.5 million users of the Google+ social network. That marked the second disclosure of a software glitch involving Google+ user data this year.

"How can we be sure that personally identifiable information is safe with you?" Rep. Hank Johnson (D., Ga.) asked.

Mr. Pichai said Google offers a privacy checkup tool to let users adjust controls on how their data is collected, but said Google has work to do to make it easier for users to fine-tune these controls.

"We want to simplify and make it easier for users to navigate these settings," he said.

He added that the company supports federal privacy legislation. Many other tech companies also support federal legislation as a way of mitigating the impact of restrictive new state privacy laws such as California's.

Google faces criticism over its plans to develop a search engine that would comply with China's strict internet censors. In the hearing, Mr. Pichai dodged questions about the future of these plans, repeatedly saying the company doesn't currently operate a search engine in China and that he plans to be transparent about any movement toward launching a product there.

Mr. Pichai sought to reassure lawmakers of Google's identity as an American company. "Even as we expand into new markets, we never forget our American roots," Mr. Pichai said in his opening statement.

He said over the past three years Google has made direct contributions of $150 billion to the U.S. economy and added more than 24,000 employees, many of them outside California, in places such as Texas, Virginia, Oklahoma and Alabama. He also told lawmakers that "we work hard to ensure the integrity of our products," and that he leads the company "without political bias."

Mr. Pichai at times played down the dominance of Google's market power by saying users increasingly turn to Amazon.com Inc. and other competitors for more of their searches.

Write to John D. McKinnon at john.mckinnon@wsj.com and Douglas MacMillan at douglas.macmillan@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 11, 2018 13:45 ET (18:45 GMT)

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