They called the federal appeals court ruling that Section 215 doesn't give the NSA authorization to collect phone records in bulk "great news" and reiterated that Google does not build backdoors into its services and does not have a surveillance portal. When asked about Edward Snowden and his actions -- which include leaking data the inferred that Google does have a surveillance portal -- Lieber wrote: "too much of the debate around Snowden has focused on whether he's a hero or traitor. It's fair to say that we would not be having this debate without Snowden's disclosures."

Lieber also noted that some government officials have "expressed concerns" about Google's deployment and use of end-to-end encryption. But that the company is doing so to safeguard its customers against identify theft.

[Image credit: Associated Press]