Senior members of the public policy team of Google participated in the Reddit "Ask Me Anything" feature, where they discussed topics such as the company's views on the reform of government surveillance and the upcoming expiration of the Patriot Act's Section 215.
The Google executives who participated in the Reddit AMA are Google director for law enforcement and information security Richard Salgado and Google senior privacy counsel David Lieber.
According to Salgado and Lieber, there has been a grand focus of Google on what the surveillance law reforms in the country should be like and how the company can be sure that it is protecting its users.
The executives said that June 1 will be the expiration of the Patriot Act's Section 215, which is the provision that the NSA is using to justify the agency's collection of the phone records covering millions of Americans.
While a ruling of a Federal appeals court stated that Section 215 should not authorize the collection of phone records in bulk, this does not mean that Section 215 or bulk phone record collection will end because other courts can go against the ruling, with the Supreme Court having the ability to completely reverse it.
The executives, however, said that there is good news, with the USA Freedom Act now passing along the House of Representatives. The bill will look to ensure that surveillance will be "narrowly tailored, transparent, and subject to oversight."
On questions regarding the creation of back channels to allow intelligence agencies to carry out surveillance duties on users, Salgado said that Google does not have such "surveillance portals."
However, when asked regarding Edward Snowden and what he did to reveal the surveillance activities of the U.S. government and the NSA, Lieber skirted around with his answer.
"Too much of the debate around Snowden has focused on whether he's a hero or traitor. It's fair to say that we would not be having this debate without Snowden's disclosures," Lieber said.
Lieber, however, reiterated that Google is not involved in the surveillance programs that Snowden revealed, adding that there are no government agencies that have access to the company's systems. In fact, he added, Google has often refused to give in to certain demands made by the government.
Photo: Mike Mozart | Flickr
