Comic Transcript
SCOTT: I am so ashamed of you right now.
YELLOW-ROBED GOOGLE EMPLOYEE: Scott, I know it’s disappointing to think that Google is involved in this, but you have to look at it practically.
YELLOW-ROBED GOOGLE EMPLOYEE: When other governments demand we provide access to information about users, we comply. Even when the information we’re giving them can be used in ways we might find distasteful.
YELLOW-ROBED GOOGLE EMPLOYEE: If we perform this service for countries that are obviously tyrannical, whose aims are clearly to suppress dissent and discourage use of the internet as a means of political expression, how can we deny other countries the same level of access?
SCOTT: … are you saying that Google is letting the NSA look at its data because overtly oppressive countries already can?
YELLOW-ROBED GOOGLE EMPLOYEE: It’s only fair.
As a point of clarification, as far as I know Google doesn’t actually have the same arrangement with foreign countries they allegedly have with the NSA. That said, I’ve run comics on Google and their loose grip on customer information before. See An Unexpected Trope, a story wherein Google gives out private information on exactly the wrong guy…
