> > First, we have not joined any program that would give the U.S. government—or any other government—direct access to our servers. Indeed, the U.S. government does not have direct access or a “back door” to the information stored in our data centers. We had not heard of a program called PRISM until yesterday.
That's a broad flat out denial. And in my opinion, it includes such options as reserving an omni-admin account for the government, and if such an arrangement exists, then Larry Page should be pilloried for issuing a lie. But until such an arrangement can be shown (and why couldn't it? If there's a NSA official who can leak about it successfully, why is it impossible to imagine that google has at least one such conscientious objector?), it seems a little unfair and counter productive to judge Google with inescapable circular logic.