Google's Eric Schmidt says government spying is 'the nature of our society'

It was a struggle to pick a forum for this topic and I almost put it in the Rant section as this really fries my chicken. Basically we have the executive chairman of one of the most influential companies in the world tell us (in regard to NSA spying) that "spying is just the way it is."

Google's Eric Schmidt says government spying is 'the nature of our society'

Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google, reiterated the tech industry's call for greater transparency from the US government over surveillance on Friday, but declined to "pass judgment" on American spying operations.

"Declined to pass judgement" has got to be a new low for corporate weasle-waffling. So Schmidt acknowledges there's a problem but is afraid to confront it himself.

"There's been spying for years, there's been surveillance for years, and so forth, I'm not going to pass judgement on that, it's the nature of our society," he said.

So he continues to say we need to talk about it but that's just the way things are. This guys courage and fortitude know no bounds. But maybe he's motivated by something else... greed perhaps? Schmidt goes on to say:

"The real danger [from] the publicity about all of this is that other countries will begin to put very serious encryption – we use the term 'balkanization' in general – to essentially split the internet and that the internet's going to be much more country specific," Schmidt said. "That would be a very bad thing, it would really break the way the internet works, and I think that's what I worry about.

Reading between the lines it seems the only thing that Eric Schmidt is worrying is that Google is going to be disrupted by people trying to secure their data. This man is a moral hazard to every internet freedom we hold dear.

Perhaps Google should change it's motto from "Do no evil" to "With great power comes the need to look after ourselves and screw everyone else."

No its not. Its what governments do when the have to many skeletons in the closet. I'm moving away from Google ans many others have done. Not that i have anything to hide. I just want assurances that my data wont fall into the wrong hands. After the NSA spoofing Google to collect data on the people, it went too far IMO.

reply to post by Bassago


Would you expect anything less out the mouth of a corporation founded by the CIA disguised as nothing more than a harmless internet company?

seeker1963
reply to post by Bassago

 

Would you expect anything less out the mouth of a corporation founded by the CIA disguised as nothing more than a harmless internet company?

No, I guess not but having our faces rubbed in it is even worse. Personally I think everyone on the internet should be making the decision of not using Google or any of it's services as well as working on alternative methods of doing business and getting things done. It will take time but Google is not indispensable.

reply to post by Bassago

It certainly is the nature of government.

Government is an invention of society.

That which society does, society may undo.

reply to post by Bassago


Thank you for this information! Google has been licensing alien technology for year! They are in league with the government that has a "think tank" of captive aliens!!! The truth is out there!

Star and flag!

reply to post by AliensRapedMe


Well... not sure about the aliens or their technology but the way Eric Schmidt thinks is sure alien to me.

Bassago
reply to post by AliensRapedMe

 

Well... not sure about the aliens or their technology but the way Eric Schmidt thinks is sure alien to me.

Googles use of open source licenses was another alien think tank idea to rapidly spread their technology to the masses!

Bassago
This man is a moral hazard to every internet freedom we hold dear.

I don't remember the great debate about internet freedoms. Which kind of gets to what Eric Schmidt is talking about. You have no internet freedom. The constitution certainly doesn't say anything about internet freedom.

Millions of people willfully give up every detail of their life on Facebook without a second thought. Millions of people punch in all their personal information into Google and Apple products to streamline their 'chaotic' lives.

For a time Facebook tried internet democracy. You could vote on proposed policies directly. Less than 0.001% of users ever voted so Facebook removed that.

If you want internet freedoms then join the Pirate Party, donate money to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Right now, you have no freedom on the internet.

links234

I don't remember the great debate about internet freedoms. Which kind of gets to what Eric Schmidt is talking about. You have no internet freedom. The constitution certainly doesn't say anything about internet freedom.

Millions of people willfully give up every detail of their life on Facebook without a second thought. Millions of people punch in all their personal information into Google and Apple products to streamline their 'chaotic' lives.

For a time Facebook tried internet democracy. You could vote on proposed policies directly. Less than 0.001% of users ever voted so Facebook removed that.

If you want internet freedoms then join the Pirate Party, donate money to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Right now, you have no freedom on the internet.

I think there has been a great deal of debate on this type issue. CISPA for one and a handful of other privacy invasion attempts. Just because the NSA clandestinely preempted everything and then illegally exceeded their mandate by any stretch of imagination doesn't mean it wasn't an issue.

When millions of people walk of the Facebook/Google/NSA cliff it doesn't mean we all have to follow them. I'll agree with you that we have (almost) no internet freedom (from spying anyway.)

seeker1963
reply to post by Bassago

 

Would you expect anything less out the mouth of a corporation founded by the CIA disguised as nothing more than a harmless internet company?

I'm not sure what is worse, the google guys comment or this. Both are just ridiculous.

Sure google started in the cia, yeah a LONG con man, sooo long..

Hmm..

WHat google are now, are nothing like what they started off as. Nothing at all. Now they are the epitome of arrogance and devious behaviour. And this guy just proves it, they've lost their ethics. And do not care to listen to reason, because their are now a conglomerate of revenue raising services.

It's disgusting to read some of the things they now espouse. Start off standing at your side, only to pick your pocket.

Google, the sooner you remember that the internet is still a bunch of networked individual computers and NOT your database, the better.

Spying is normal? Ok, so why do people get pinged for peeping in windows. Pathetic google.

This smacks in the face of them being proven in the wrong for snooping on open wifi, because there was no 'legal reason' why they couldnt. They claim they will fight that ruling.

Do no evil.. may as well just forget that line ever existed. Embrace the devil, it's natural. And hey, you like mudkips, rite?

Bassago

seeker1963
reply to post by Bassago

 

Would you expect anything less out the mouth of a corporation founded by the CIA disguised as nothing more than a harmless internet company?

No, I guess not but having our faces rubbed in it is even worse. Personally I think everyone on the internet should be making the decision of not using Google or any of it's services as well as working on alternative methods of doing business and getting things done. It will take time but Google is not indispensable.

There are already services that do what google do. No one uses them en masse. Why?

Think apple. Everyone hates apple. So android comes along (forget for the moment it is also google). Hurrah! Android.. Take that apple! Oh wait, but it actually sucks ... it's not as good. It takes more time, and you have to do some things very diffrerently. I'm too used to apple, sorry android, I must return to my fruit.

Same with google. Hurrah for duckduckgo. or startpage.. or bing images if youre desperate.

But hey they suck when the results are so different. And I'm sure google returned a match for something the other day, cant find it on duckduck. Gah, back to google. Oh there is the result.

So we remain... not because we don't hate google. But because we're slack, lazy, ignorant masses.

Google rely on it. They're not getting away with all this garbage because we're smart intelligent users, you know.

they count on the ocean, and can spare the drops.

winofiend

 

Do no evil.. may as well just forget that line ever existed. Embrace the devil, it's natural. And hey, you like mudkips, rite?

"We're Google" - "Embrace the Devil"

I like your new slogan for them better than mine.