DHAKA: Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt said reports that the US government spied on the internet giant’s data centres were ‘outrageous’ and potentially illegal if proved true, in an interview on Monday.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal during a visit to Hong Kong, the technology guru said that Google had filed complaints with the National Security Agency, US president Barack Obama, as well as members of the US Congress.

‘It’s really outrageous that the National Security Agency was looking between the Google data centres if that`s true. The steps that the organisation was willing to do without good judgement to pursue its mission and potentially violate people`s privacy, it`s not OK,’ Schmidt said, reports The Straits Times.

‘The NSA allegedly collected the phone records of 320 million people in order to identify roughly 300 people who might be at risk. It’s just bad public policy...and perhaps illegal,’ he said in the interview conducted in the southern Chinese city.

BDST: 1949 HRS, NOV 04, 2013
RoR/SRS