Google chief executive Eric Schmidt is on the record as dismissing the importance of privacy.
Back in 2009, when Schmidt was asked during an interview whether people should share information with Google as if it were a “trusted friend”, he responded, “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” But when an Oracle attorney disclosed in court on January 14 that Google has made US$31 billion from its Android operating system, of which US$22 billion is profit, Google was quick to ask that the document revealing this fact should be sealed.