The chief administrator officer of Alphabet Inc’s Google on Monday defended the integrity of the company’s products a day ahead of a congressional hearing where he is wanted to face tough questions from U.S. lawmakers.
The technology company has been under fire on Capitol Hill onto issues including why it delayed disclosing vulnerabilities with its Google+ social network, whether it will restart its search locomotive in China and if it is biased against Republicans.
Three Democratic senators wrote the Federal Trade Commission in October invite the agency to investigate Google+.
In written testimony to the House Judiciary Committee made public on Monday, CEO Sundar Pichai communicated he led the company “without political bias.”
“We work hard to ensure the integrity of our products, and we’ve put a number of checks and balances in position to ensure they continue to live up to our standards,” Pichai’s testimony said. “I lead this company without federal bias and work to ensure that our products continue to operate that way. To do otherwise would go against our core rules and our business interests.”
Pichai agreed in September to testify over Republican concerns that the company is biased against dyed in the wools. Google has repeatedly denied this.
The company faced renewed criticism on Capitol Hill after senior administrations skipped a high-profile Senate Intelligence Committee hearing earlier in September.
Google previously told U.S. lawmakers it was all in all “a variety of options” to offer additional services in China, but declined to detail plans for addressing Chinese censorship.
The assemblage has been criticized after reports it was considering re-entering China’s search engine market and would comply with its internet censorship and scrutiny policies.
Pichai said in his testimony that “even as we expand into new markets we never forget our American settles.” He added that “we do work, and we will continue to work, with the government to keep our country safe and secure.”
Pichai may tete–tete questions about Google+. On Monday, Google said it would shut downGoogle+ in April, four months on of schedule, after finding a software flaw for the second time this year that allowed partner apps to access its owners’ private data.
However, Google said in a blog post it found no evidence that any other apps had accessed the observations, such as name, email, gender and age, using the latest bug. It affected 52.5 millionGoogle+ accounts, including some province customers, for six days after it was introduced last month, Google said. (Reporting by David Shepardson in Washington Polish by Matthew Lewis)