[miend]

Looking at projects like this, it almost looks like Google is actively seeking to become some kind of additional branch or agency of the government -- one with powers to do what the Fed can't, so they sell their services to those same Feds. Furthermore, the revolving door around tech giants and the government atop the Snowden leaks and Google's complete dismissal of them make me think the only "transparency" Google works toward is transparency of the citizen, never the state. That kind of transparency, which we call the surveillance state, or the Panopticon to illustrate the psychological effect, produces an enormous power imbalance against whomever has less information (the citizenry). These aren't benevolent acts. They are state power plays, and Google plays along with them.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/13/eric-schmidt-go...

https://wikileaks.org/google-is-not-what-it-seems/

[rudolf0]

Schmidt's behavior as described by Assange is extremely concerning and bordering on frightening, but, so far, no evidence has been produced that he's dedicated any of Google's resources to his personal goals. Just because the CEO of a company has an agenda (bordering on conflict of interest) doesn't necessarily mean Google itself shares that agenda.