David Drummond Google's chief legal officer put it like this:
We are outraged at the lengths to which the government seems to have gone to intercept data from our private fiber networks, and it underscores the need for urgent reform
In a statement from the NSA they are claiming that they are not retaining US citizens data - and thus confirming that they retain everything else.
NSA has multiple authorities that it uses to accomplish its mission, which is centered on defending the nation. The Washington Post’s assertion that we use Executive Order 12333 collection to get around the limitations imposed by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and FAA 702 is not true. The assertion that we collect vast quantities of U.S. persons’ data from this type of collection is also not true. NSA applies Attorney General-approved processes to protect the privacy of U.S. persons - minimizing the likelihood of their information in our targeting, collection, processing, exploitation, retention, and dissemination. NSA is a foreign intelligence agency. And we’re focused on discovering and developing intelligence about valid foreign intelligence targets only
The implications for Google would be that foreigners do not want to use their products. And foreigners provide a lot of money for Google...
This part we can trust. Regarding respecting the privacy of US citizens; it is more questionable since they would be required to lie about it anyway.
So what Google collects -the NSA intercepts!
Maybe that will raise the awareness for privacy issues at Google.
It is an established confirmed fact that you cannot use the Google services without sharing the information with the NSA - that bothers Google.
In fact this NSA sketch made the Google techs explode:
Nice joke there about the removed Secure Socket Layer (SSL).
