Google chief: Only miscreants worry about net privacy

""If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place," Schmidt tells CNBC, sparking howls of incredulity from the likes of Gawker.

"But the bigger news may be that Schmidt has actually admitted there are cases where the search giant is forced to release your personal data.

""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."

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