Googles official motto is "don't be evil". The question we have to ask is just what Google considers evil. It is obvious that violating their users privacy is not something that Google thinks is "evil". If you are signed in as a user of Google, they are tracking your search terms and the sights that you are visiting. If you use gmail or Google Plus they track your interests as well as your social interactions with other people. Of course, social relationships are also a core part of Facebook.
It is these relationships that the security services such as the CIA are interested in. So those who believe that they have nothing to worry about because they do nothing wrong need to question whether they can say the same thing about all of their Facebook friends and those on their email lists.
Now the interior minister of Germany, who is their top security chief, is advising Germans to avoid using Google, Facebook and other American web services. And it is not just the Americans. The British and French are known to secretly track internet usage. The security services of many other countries are known to openly track and even restrict the internet usage of their residents.
Germans Advised to Avoid Google, Facebook
Germany's top security official says internet users worried about
their data being intercepted by US intelligence agencies should stop
using American websites such as Google and Facebook.
Leaked revelations about the US National Security Agency's
wholesale information on foreign web users has prompted outrage in
Europe and calls for tighter international rules on data protection.
Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich told reporters in
Berlin on Wednesday that "whoever fears their communication is being
intercepted in any way should use services that don't go through
American servers."
Friedrich says German officials are in touch with their US
counterparts "on all levels" and a delegation is scheduled to fly to
Washington next week to discuss the claims that ordinary citizens and
even European diplomats were being spied upon.
