The revelation that the NSA has been secretly spying on Google data centers worldwide doesn't sit well with the search giant.
In a video interview with The Wall Street Journal, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said the practice was "outrageous" and criticized the NSA's collection of Americans phone records.
"It's really outrageous that the National Security Agency was looking between the Google data centers, if that's true. The steps that the organization was willing to do without good judgment to pursue its mission and potentially violate people's privacy, it's not OK. It's just not OK."
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Schmidt added that the NSA's surveillance "just doesn't pass the smell test." He referred to the telephone metadata collection program, one of the first revelations from the documents Edward Snowden leaked, as an example.
"The NSA allegedly collected the phone records of 320 million people in order to identify roughly 300 people who might be a risk. It's just bad public policy. There clearly are cases where evil people exist, but you don't have to violate the privacy of every single citizen of America to find them."
However, Google has received its fair share of criticism, too. The Snowden documents also revealed Google was among the tech giants part of the NSA Internet surveillance program PRISM.
Media reports initially misrepresented the program, saying it gave direct access to the companies' servers. The companies involved have since mounted a sustained campaign to defend themselves, asking the government for more transparency and, more recently, directly seeking reforms.
Last week, Google—along with Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL—sent a letter to Congress supporting reform of NSA surveillance programs.
You can watch Schmidt's entire interview below.

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