Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), caught up in the controversy of a U.S. data-snooping program, explicitly refutes the assumption of participating in any government program involving a Government equipment installed on its premises to transfer requested data to the government authorities.
Henry Blodget from Business Insider explains how exactly the web search giant fulfills government data request for its PRISM program.
According to the publication, the initial reports by National Security Agency claimed that the government had been tapping directly into the central servers of online giants like Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and Twitter to collect data and spy on their users.
Google’s Letter To Attorney General Eric Holder
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director Robert Mueller on Monday, arguing over the need to tell the public how many data requests they get under national security programs.
The company made it a point that it took years of hard work to earn user’s trust and that the information it wanted to disclose to the public would come as a proof that the company is not handing over massive batches of user’s personal data to the government.
“Google has worked tremendously hard of the past 15 years to earn our users’ trusts,” Google’s chief legal officer, David Drummond, said in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI chief Robert Mueller.
Amir Efrati of the Wall Street Journal writes that in order to comply to government’s request to provide user’s data, Google sends an electronic file via secure FTP or prints out the information on paper and hands it over to the government in boxes.
The web giant explains that neither of those methods points at providing government a direct access to its servers.
“When required to comply with these requests, we deliver that information to the US government — generally through secure FTP transfers and in person,” Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) spokesman Chris Gaither told Wired.com. “The US government does not have the ability to pull that data directly from our servers or network.”
“We refuse to participate in any program — for national security or other reasons — that requires us to provide governments with access to our systems or to install their equipment on our networks,” Gather said in his statement to the publication.
Gather also claims that the company had also turned down the request to install a system on their facilities that could allow the government to obtain court-ordered data easily from their servers .
