Spying
and storing: Assange says 'Google works like NSA'
19
September, 2014
WikiLeaks
founder Julian Assange equated Google with the National Security
Agency and GCHQ, saying the tech giant has become “a privatized
version of the NSA,” as it collects, stores, and indexes people’s
data. He made his remarks to BBC and Sky News.
“Google’s
business model is the spy. It makes more than 80 percent of its money
by collecting information about people, pooling it together, storing
it, indexing it, building profiles of people to predict their
interests and behavior, and then selling those profiles principally
to advertisers, but also others,”Assange
told BBC.
“So
the result is that Google, in terms of how it works, its actual
practice, is almost identical to the National Security Agency or
GCHQ,” the
whistleblower argued.
‘Google deeply involved in US foreign policy’
Google
has been working with the NSA “in
terms of contracts since at least 2002,” Assange
told Sky News.
“They
are formally listed as part of the defense industrial base since
2009. They have been engaged with the Prism system, where nearly all
information collected by Google is available to the NSA,” Assange
said. “At
the institutional level, Google is deeply involved in US foreign
policy.”
Google
has tricked people into believing that it is “a
playful, humane organization” and
not a “big,
bad US corporation,” Assange
told BBC. “But
in fact it has become just that...it is now arguably the most
influential commercial organization.”
“Google
has now spread to every country, every single person, who has access
to the internet,” he
reminded.
Police stand guard during a news
conference by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian
embassy in central London August 18, 2014.(Reuters / Toby Melville)
The
embassy is watched around the clock by British police who are ready
to place Assange under arrest should he attempt to leave.
Assange
said that his stay there has impacted his work, as surveillance makes
certain tasks very difficult.
“The
7.3 million pounds (US$12 million) of police surveillance admitted
outside this embassy. It is a difficult situation. It is not a
situation that is easy for [a] national security reporter. You can’t
read sources. It is difficult to meet some of my staff because of
that surveillance,” he
said.
“On
the other hand, there are no subpoenas, there are no door knocks in
the night, unlike [for] other national security reporters. So in some
ways there are benefits to the situation,” Assange
noted. “Other
people are in more difficult situations. Chelsea Manning for example,
who was sentenced last year to 35 years in prison, my alleged
co-conspirator.”
Attitude shift
Assange
spoke optimistically about recent changes made to Britain's
extradition laws.
“Early
this year, the UK passed modifications to ban extradition without
charge, to insist on if you want to speak with someone you have to
come to the UK or charge them. You can’t just say, 'I want to speak
to that person and I am not willing to use any standard mechanisms.'”
Meanwhile, the situation has also been changing in Sweden, with general elections taking place over the weekend. According to Assange, there is a shift in attitude there, which could mean a significant change for him as early as next year.
“The
Swedish election was on Sunday. We don’t know yet what the
formation of the government will be. It will probably be a
center-left government. And there is attitude changes there. We have
appeal in Sweden in just two weeks’ time.”
Assange
filed an appeal against a Swedish warrant for his arrest earlier in
September. His lawyers are arguing that the prosecutors are
acting “in
gross breach of Swedish law.”
“We
argue against the district court’s decision and believe they do not
properly take account of the situation,” said
Assange's Swedish attorney, Thomas Olssen, according to Swedish daily
Svenska Dagbladet.
The
WikiLeaks founder is wanted for questioning in Sweden, for allegedly
sexually assaulting two women in Stockholm in 2010.
Assange
denies the allegations, but will not travel to Sweden to be
questioned because he says the charges are politically motivated for
his work with WikiLeaks and he will be extradited to the US.
WikiLeaks enraged Washington by publishing thousands of leaked
diplomatic cables in 2010.
Meanwhile,
Assange has released a new book titled 'When Google Met WikiLeaks.'
In the book, the WikiLeaks founder describes his vision for the
future of the internet and recounts a meeting with Google chairman
Eric Schmidt in 2011.
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