Schmidt: NSA spying on Google "not OK"

NSA spying on Google data centers is "outrageous" and potentially illegal, if proven, says Google's Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

In the interview, Schmidt says that the infiltration of the data centers did not show good judgment and was "not OK."

Schmidt criticized other NSA activities and the broad approach of massive data collection. He specifically mentioned telephone metadata collection, saying that collecting records on 320 million people to catch 300 who might be a risk is "…just bad public policy…and perhaps illegal."

Google has registered complaints with the NSA, the U.S. Congress and President Barack Obama. Schmidt was a major donor to the Obama campaign and has been an advisor both to the campaign and the administration.

The WSJ cites an NSA response which states that the reports of their spying on Google and Yahoo! data centers contained errors and that the agency complies with all relevant laws.