U.S. enables Chinese hacking of Google

“Google made headlines when it went public with the fact that
Chinese hackers had penetrated some of its services, such as Gmail,
in a politically motivated attempt at intelligence gathering. The
news here isn’t that Chinese hackers engage in these activities or
that their attempts are technically sophisticated — we knew that
already — it’s that the U.S. government inadvertently aided the
hackers.

“In order to comply with government search warrants on user
data, Google created a backdoor access system into Gmail accounts.
This feature is what the Chinese hackers exploited to gain
access.

“Google’s system isn’t unique. Democratic governments around the
world — in Sweden, Canada and the UK, for example — are rushing
to pass laws giving their police new powers of Internet
surveillance, in many cases requiring communications system
providers to redesign products and services they sell.”

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