Google Connection to NSA Evident from Published Emails
Close Google-NSA connections proved when leaked emails got published online. Google cofounder Sergei Brin and Vice President Eric Schmidt had a couple of top secret encounters with the National Security Agency of the United States, reports Al-Jazeera referring to the emails its journalists obtained.
NSA chief General Kieth Alexander invited Brin and Schmidt to attend a classified briefing to discuss potential cybersecurity threats from foreign countries. The fact that the meeting took place is proved by the files legally obtained by the Al-Jazeera company according to the Law of Freedom of Information.
The meeting itself is not such a big news after all, but it does make you ponder how cozy tech giant chiefs felt around the surveillance agencies, and how deep the latter penetrated the hi-tech industry.
It also raises questions as to what kind of private information about Google users could have been obtained by the NSA under the umbrella of the Enduring Security Framework program, the ESF. Obviously, Google's Brin and Schimdt were not the only tech chiefs from the Silicon Valley who befriended Alexander and his subordinates.
The revelation at hand is yet another piece of an ever evolving puzzle, which looks quite ominously now that we know NSA stores millions of Yahoo web cam images, as well as intercepts Google and Yahoo traffic.
According to the emails published by the Al-Jazeera, Alexander emailed Schmidt on June 28th, 2012, inviting him to attend a secret briefing on cybersecurity threats that was scheduled to take place on August 8th, in proximity of San Jose, California. In his email, Alexander mentions a previous meeting of Google top management with NSA representatives, but the general required one more meeting should take place.
“About six months ago, we began focusing on the security of mobility devices,” Alexander wrote. “A group (primarily Google, Apple and Microsoft) recently came to agreement on a set of core security principles. When we reach this point in our projects we schedule a classified briefing for the CEOs of key companies to provide them a brief on the specific threats we believe can be mitigated and to seek their commitment for their organization to move ahead … Google’s participation in refinement, engineering and deployment of the solutions will be essential.”
The mentioned briefing was a part of a large-scale project code-named the Enduring Security Framework, ESF. In his emails, Alexander explains ESF was founded in 2009 by chief members of Defense Ministry, Ministry of National Security and 18 American CEOs with the aim to direct the work of the government and key industry representatives on a number of priority issues of national security that cannot be resolved by separate participants.
Even though the published emails do not prove the fact Google, Microsoft or Yahoo were explicitly leaking users private data to surveillance agencies, they do prove the collaboration on issues of national security between the NSA and tech companies started long before Snowden sent the cold shivers down their spines. While NSA does not need justification to spy on people, after all, that's what it does, tech companies need their reputation clean, while the recurring revelation won't let the companies rest on laurels.
Something tells me Snowden's revelations are soon to be exhausted, and the predominant majority of average users will simply forget all about it, as Google and the likes of it will continue to flourish.
A Google representative gave a vague comment on Brin’s and Schmidt’s relationship with the NSA and the government.
“We work really hard to protect our users from cyberattacks, and we always talk to experts — including in the U.S. government — so we stay ahead of the game,” Google representative said in a statement to Al Jazeera. “It’s why Sergey attended this NSA conference.”
Source: Al-Jazeera
