Cade Metz reports on a comment by Google CEO Eric Schmidt during a CNBC interview that has set tongues a-clucking and a-lashing on the ‘net.
If you’re concerned about Google retaining your personal data, then you must be doing something you shouldn’t be doing. At least that’s the word from Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
“If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place,” Schmidt tells CNBC, sparking howls of incredulity from the likes of Gawker.
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I had watched the CNBC interview and wasn’t pleased with Schmidt’s comment, either. I mean, suppose I really want to learn to flamenco dancing and don’t want people to know until I’m ready to audition for “Dancing with the Stars?” According to Schmidt, then I shouldn’t take lessons? And deprive the world of the next great senior citizen flamenco dancer?
Metz suggests that the “bigger news may be that Schmidt has actually admitted there are cases where the search giant is forced to release your personal data.” Well, that’s not news at all to anyone to has been following all the defamation and libel lawsuits where Google is subpoenaed for bloggers’ records. The more interesting question, to me, is how often they have to provide data under the PATRIOT Act, which Schmidt refers to. Of course, unless there’s some leak, we’ll probably never find out as the government can issue letters that prohibit Google from notifying the subject of the inquiry or discussing the matter at all.
So, does this confirm what many people have suspected all along, that “Google _is_ evil”?