How Cozy Are Google and the NSA?

Has allegedly requested help from the National Security Agency in tracking down hackers who attacked its infrastructure. The development has raised concerns among privacy advocates.

The Washington Post broke the story that Google had turned to the NSA on Thursday, citing anonymous sources.

Security experts and privacy advocates have questioned Google's motives. Some have warned that this could constitute another attack on American citizens' civil liberties. Others say the move is part of a scheme by Google to curry favor with the government as it seeks to get more government contracts.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a Freedom of Information Act request and asked for expedited processing with the NSA Thursday. It seeks information on the agency's arrangements with Google on cybersecurity. It is also looking for records regarding the NSA's role in setting security standards for Gmail and other Web-based applications.

Google declined to discuss the issue. "We're not going to comment beyond what we said in our original blog post," spokesperson Jay Nancarrow told TechNewsWorld. "At the time, we said we are working with the relevant U.S. authorities."

The blog post to which Nancarrow referred was written by David Drummond, Google's chief legal officer, and originally posted Jan. 12. The hack attack described in the post was publicized last month and has severely strained relations between Google and the government of China, where the attack is believed to have originated. The attack also targeted at least 20 other large companies, and Google claimed there was evidence suggesting a primary goal of the attackers was to break into the accounts of Chinese human rights activists. The accounts of "dozens" of Gmail users in the United States, Europe and China who advocate human rights in China also appeared to have been "routinely accessed" by third parties, Drummond said.