Clearly they take the idea seriously, since they're building something designed to work at sea, as well as Project Loon

"Actually, we thought about that and there are many, many reasons why it's impossible for Google to leave the United States, although it's attractive," Schmidt said.

I can't imagine they'd be welcomed in very many places.

"But the reason it's an interesting idea is because American firms are subject to these rules, the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] rules, Patriot Act and so forth, and this government surveillance is really a problem."

Doesn't give you a warm fuzzy feeling does it Schmidt? Now you know how the international community has been feeling about you flagrantly violating International Privacy Laws for so many years.

"Google's position is we are outraged on this,"

< He said, head tilted back, with the back of his hand to his forehead. >

It's government overreach, is the best way to explain it.

No, there are much better ways of explaining it. The good news is he'll have another opportunity to come up with another script.

This kind of government surveillance is also a huge business risk, he said.

There ya go. Let your true feelings pour out. Business risk trumps a right to human decency and dignity huh?

Because other governments do not want the U.S. breaching their citizens' data...

Other governments also didn't want google breaching their citizens' data but that didn't stop them. In fact it's google who has been breaching all along. The NSA breached google's stockpile, along with other sources.

...they will begin to demand control over the servers of American businesses located in their country.

I think pulling the plug on them would be a much better idea.

"If you're a member of the government from one of these countries, what are you going to do? You're going to say 'what can I do in my country to prevent this?'" he said.

Actually no. The governments are probably not going to say anything, I've heard nothing from the Canadian government, because many of them were in bed with you. But, there are plenty of private businesses saying lots. You know how it is Schmidt, money talks. But for most small businesses extorted in recent years, all their money said was -- goodbye.

"One of the great things about America is its OK to complain about this in public and we are doing so," he said. "We have taken legal actions, we have filed a lawsuit in a secret court, it's called a FISA court."

It's futile Schmidt, there is no more secret, get over it.

Such a hypocritical attitude coming from someone who has frequently said in public "we know what you are thinking". Evil personified.

I'd like to interview that fellow in a public forum myself one day.

wow, you know, someone with a good memory and a wee dram of irony might say to Schmidt something along the lines of "if you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place".

(I understand these are not directly comparable situations, but the guy needs a large mug of cop-yourself-on-ya-eedjit)

I can't imagine they'd be welcomed in very many places.

I am sure they would be. Lots of jobs and money running data centres.

Such a hypocritical attitude coming from someone who has frequently said in public "we know what you are thinking". Evil personified.

Huge difference. Google only know about you:

1) what you tell them though your voluntary use of Google services.
2) what they can infer from sites than embed Google services such as Google analytics. You can largely block this by blocking third party cookies and connecting from a dynamic IP (and most of us do the latter anyway).

The governments gather everything about you: your Google searches, your Bing searches, your Facebook comments, every site you visit (and every bit of data that does not go over SSL) and a lot more.