With its number 1 search engine, instant chat client, email service, advertising service, and many other products and services, Google have access to a wealth of personal data about almost everybody using the internet.
Many have questioned the rationality of entrusting one company with all that info and its implications on our privacy and security. Today, Google CEO Eric Schmidt ridiculed those concerns, saying that "if you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."
Schmidt then admitted that Google does sometimes release its users' private data, stating that "if you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines - including Google - do retain this information for some time and it's important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act and it is possible that all that information could be made available to the authorities."
It's worthy to note that Schmidt himself has banned CNet from Google for an entire year after the major news site published a story listing his personal info that could be found through Google search. The info included his salary, neighborhood and hobbies.