Google publicly misrepresented data retention as technological inevitability.

Evidence

That surveillance capitalism is a logic in action and not a technology is a vital point because surveillance capitalists want us to think that their practices are inevitable expressions of the technologies they employ. For example, in 2009 the public first became aware that Google maintains our search histories indefinitely: data that are available as raw-material supplies are also available to intelligence and law-enforcement agencies. When questioned about these practices, the corporation’s former CEO Eric Schmidt mused, “The reality is that search engines including Google do retain this information for some time.” — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 58

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Google’s refusal to allow opt-out reflects its extractive economics, not mere product choice — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 483; Google responds to resistance with staged superficial compliance rather than genuine reform — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 441; Google justifies total knowledge collection as a requirement for useful search — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1275 (+1 more)