Google CEO Eric Schmidt's Most Controversial Quotes About Privacy

Google could face huge fines and loss of customer trust as a result of its recent privacy stumbles. In October, the Internet search giant admitted that its Street View cars had collected personal emails, passwords and more over unsecured Wi-Fi connections. In September, the company confirmed that a Google engineer was fired for accessing personal data of users, four of whom were minors.

For years, users and watchdog organizations have voiced their concerns about Google's privacy policies and its control over users' digital lives. Google CEO Eric Schmidt has frequently addressed these concerns, but he hasn't always alleviated fears.

Schmidt's statements about privacy sometimes seem to conflict with Google's "Don't be evil" mantra, and his predictions about the future of tech sound startlingly invasive to some.

Although Schmidt has claimed that some of his controversial remarks have been jokes, he has also admitted to misspeaking and stoking anxieties.

See our roundup of Schmidt's most controversial quotes about privacy below. Do you think his statements are reasonable? Worrisome? Tell us what you think in the comments below.

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"Google policy is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it," Schmidt told the Atlantic at the Washington Ideas Forum in October 2010. He went on, speaking about the future of search,

With your permission you give us more information about you, about your friends, and we can improve the quality of our searches [...] We don't need you to type at all. We know where you are. We know where you've been. We can more or less know what you're thinking about.

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"Google policy is to get right up to the creepy line and not cross it," Schmidt told the Atlantic at the Washington Ideas Forum in October 2010. He went on, speaking about the future of search,

With your permission you give us more information about you, about your friends, and we can improve the quality of our searches [...] We don't need you to type at all. We know where you are. We know where you've been. We can more or less know what you're thinking about.

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Comments

[Razor Shultz]

06:09 PM on 11/07/2010

I think Google could become a very dangerous organisation if it really holds all this personal information on us.

[TAFL]

09:56 AM on 11/07/2010

Does anybody still believe that Google is not evil?

[jsgaetano]

02:41 PM on 11/08/2010

Them constantly chanting "Don't Be Evil" has always sounded like a coverup to me.
 
Especially when you see their history of over-collecting data, making sure every search is tied back to a MAC address, etc.
 
If a person understands the technical repercussions of what Google is doing, they're really, really creepy.

[Ricardo Fortunato]

04:37 AM on 11/07/2010

They are collecting God knows what about us until the inevitable point in the not so distante future when Google is going to reveal their true intentions and power. Say hi when this happens please. Thanks.

[jsgaetano]

02:47 PM on 11/08/2010

It's pretty simple to see what was done.
 
Back under George Dubai Bush, conservatives were pushing for a "Total Information Awareness" program which would let the NSA collect every kind of information they could get their hands on... but even the Gooper's Rubber Stamp Congress balked at that level of Constitutional violation (and these were people who truly believe there isn't a right to privacy, which is what their assaults on Roe v. Wade are based upon).
 
So instead of having TIA run by the NSA... the conservatives simply decided to have a privatized mega-corporation run the program.  Another advantage (to them) of doing it that way is that while the NSA is ultimately beholden to We The People... Google is beholden to nobody.  If they want to collect tons of information, and sell that data to China so they can execute dissidents... well, there's nobody to say they can't. 
 
Google doesn't have to care about insignificant things like human rights or the US Consitution, because they're a multi-billion dollar corporation.

[EpicCatman]

09:25 PM on 11/06/2010

Why are we surprised? Google is a CORPORATION. Their main objective to make a PROFIT quarter after quarter, not to protect the public's privacy

- don't you just love free market capitalism? :(

[Jeffrey Simons]

12:58 AM on 11/06/2010

The question that google needs to ask itself is not can we do it but should we do it. They seem to have no moral centre.

[RTIII]

03:48 PM on 11/05/2010

Once again, HP editors have slightly missed the correct question.

ALL of these remarks are "understandable", given who they are coming from.

The real question is, do these remarks represent things that are benign or dangerous.

Nearly all of them are VERY dangerous for a democracy, and most of them are strongly anti freedom.

[Andy Scatterbrain]

01:03 AM on 11/05/2010

The idea that you can escape your Facebook antics by changing your name is false. That feature which lets you select your friends faces in photographs is the feed for facial recognition algorithms that will be able to find you under any name. What this is about is a fundamental transformation of society and culture. The good news is that materials which could blackmail a person in previous time will become so common as to become totally devalued, as has already been happening for decades (celeb sex tapes leading to job offers e.g.) the bad news is that this will foster a collapse of long term social values, which are so ubiquitous they probably exist for a good reason.

[JuanGuapo]

11:44 PM on 11/04/2010

If you don't like Google, stop using their products.

Considering all the good Google does, esp. for education and students, it'll be a while before I do.

[SilentSolidarity]

01:09 AM on 11/05/2010

True. It's not that you have a choice. I depend on Google Maps that helps me to plan a transit route.

[georgecarlin1776]

11:27 PM on 11/04/2010

The next social networking company that offers 'extreme' privacy protection will flourish and do to facebook and google what they did to myspace.

[Andy Scatterbrain]

01:03 AM on 11/05/2010

The problem is that its easy to say they have that privacy protection, but what's going on behind the scenes?

[georgecarlin1776]

09:46 AM on 11/05/2010

But they won't even say that as of now. Time to rebel.

[OldCowboy]

06:28 PM on 11/04/2010

This is why I don't use google as a search engine or google chrome as a browser.

[politisophical]

03:48 AM on 11/05/2010

youre missing out...lol.. chrome is BLAZING fast and there is no search engine as versatile as google.... not to mention they treat employees all around the world with respect and give them fair salaries..

i dont like what they do sometimes, but they have to have some level of ruthlessness to compete in modern times...

the one deal breaker for me is if google actively begins to block net neutrality... they can have my anonymous regional information.. as long as they give me equal bandwidth..

[Sean Laney]

05:17 PM on 11/04/2010

What is wrong with having a personal digital assistant?

[Sandgnat]

04:16 PM on 11/04/2010

I predict that 15 years from now, Erichscmidt will be a synonym for 'creepy nerd'

[RTIII]

03:51 PM on 11/05/2010

Too late, already is.