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Comment by erikb | Hacker News Reader

I don't understand much about IT security and privacy matters, but does it really say anything about Google giving data access to the NSA?

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As far as I can decipher - because like most news posts, it contains a lot of words without a matching volume of content - the core of the content can be boiled down to:

  * Silicon Valley CEOs and the government had meetings on protecting infastructure
  * A BIOS infiltration plot was derailed, but details on it were technobabble, 
    according to expert : https://news.yahoo.com/60-minutes-bios-plot-may-214330769.html
  * Alleged backdoor in BIOS. Linked article on Spiegel is about routers : 
    http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/catalog-reveals-nsa-has-back-doors-for-numerous-devices-a-940994.html)
  * Government continues to enlist company help in thwarting attacks.
    Specifically targeting mobile devices. Again, details are sparse.

There's no direct evidence, and it's unlikely you'll ever find any, that Google or indeed most other companies are directly giving the government access to private data. The biggest issue is the obvious conflict of interest as noted by observers where the NSA is trying to protect infrastructure while having a means to weaken it benefits them as well.

The Spiegel article is not only about routers, it specifically mentions "malicious code in so-called BIOS" too.

The links between Google's datacenters were unencrypted at the time so the data was just there for easy taking without needing explicit cooperation.

http://www.wired.com/2013/10/nsa-hacked-yahoo-google-cables/

The article is about securing devices, not about sharing data with the NSA.

It probably says the same as Microsoft giving data access to the NSA (and they do).

Microsoft gives data to the NSA for specific users when they receive a court order for those users' data. That has nothing to do with this article.

So does Google but the article specifically says, "and other industry executives". Microsoft has long been known to freely divulge information to the NSA while Google has long complained about government intrusion and publishes such information requests when it can.

Please don't be under the false impression that Google, and only Google, is complicit in these things as headlines like this imply.

In fact, the headline implies there is wrongdoing going on which, on its face, is blatantly false. There is no fact.

"Microsoft has long been known to freely divulge information to the NSA"

Neither company has been known to do that.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-c...

This article is about systems Microsoft built for handing over specific users' data that Microsoft was given a court order for.

Again, there is no evidence of Microsoft freely divulging any user information to the NSA without a court order.

I never thought anyone would need a citation for something that has been common knowledge for years.

So common is this knowledge that stating attracts downvotes on a forum with the people who would know.

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