Google's Executive Chairman, Eric Schmidt, told NBC in an interview that former National Security Agency (NSA) analyst, Edward Snowden, should be praised for his part in revealing the agency's surveillance programs to the world.
Schmidt said he had no idea the NSA was snooping around Google's data and went on to add that several members of Google along with himself were outraged after learning what the NSA and the UK's GCHQ were doing.
"We've complained at great length" to the U.S. government, Schmidt said. Google has also begun encrypting its internal traffic in a bid to prevent future spying, he said.
"I have the necessary clearances to have been told, as do other executives in the company, but none of us were briefed. Had we been briefed, we probably couldn't have acted on it, because we'd have known about it. I've declined briefings [from the US government] about this because I don't want to be constrained," Schmidt said.
In a separate interview with NBC, the Google chairman also said the company has lost "hundreds of millions of dollars in profit" to international competitors due to the NSA spying revelation. He believes European technology companies are using the spying scandal to take business away from American companies, and that claim of hundreds of millions of dollars being lost should be proof enough that this is actually hurting U.S. companies more than we know.
Edward Snowden has been seen by some as a hero, and by others as a traitor for what he did. However, Schmidt believes he should be credited for his bold actions.
"When I look at what's happened here, a debate has been started," Schmidt said. "You have to give him credit for that."
While speaking to the Guardian, Schmidt hinted that Google only received a small amount of data requests from the NSA. However, he was in no position to disclose this number due to the illegality of doing so.
"It's illegal to notify the public how many requests we get; we've filed suit to release the aggregate number," Schmidt said, adding that he chooses not to see the requests despite his security clearance. "I do not by choice, because if I did then I would be subject to a whole lot of rules. There's a team of attorneys who see them."
