Google: Europeans must be able to resist US government privacy breach

Citizens of the European Union, like Americans, must be able to resist misuse of their personal data by the US government. Google argues for this, which says it is concerned about the damaged relations between the US and Europe.

Google’s chief legal officer, David Drummond, notes that Americans in most EU countries can file a lawsuit if they believe that a government has handled their data incorrectly, but that it cannot the other way around. “The US Privacy Act should therefore be extended to Europeans,” Drummond said.

Drummond, who reacted angrily last year to the alleged NSA intrusion into Google’s internal network, emphasized that governments “have a duty to protect citizens.” According to the lawyer, however, the balance has tipped: the government would infringe too much on the rights of individual citizens.

A delegation from the European Commission is in Washington on Thursday, which Drummond says is a good time to ‘take a new stance’. Obama said earlier that he wants Europeans to have the same protection as Americans; According to Drummond, it is now up to the US Congress to take action.