The View from Above

In "Google to enlist NSA to help it ward off cyberattacks," the Washington Post reveals that the leading U.S. search engine company, which has recently announced a "new approach" to China, has requested help from the once highly secretive National Security Agency in fending off and tracking down hackers who might be operating with the approval of the authoritarian government in Beijing. Given how civil libertarians at the Electronic Frontier Foundation have already expressed concerns about domestic spying by the NSA and how that group has also raised issues about the privacy policies of Google (in relationship to the company's e-books, desktop software, corporate philosophy, and search engine design), many critics are likely to be uncomfortable with this new alliance.