Saying that the National Security Agency has a
history of poking its nose into other people’s business understates
the case — the NSA basically exists to creep the world out with
over-the-top
and constitutionally questionable nosiness. So, it was no small
matter when the NSA and Google, the intersection of most
everybody’s online life, began chatting in the aftermath of a 2010
cyberattack on Chinese human rights activists. But we’re unlikely
to learn anything about that relationship soon, now that a federal
court has rejected the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s
freedom of information request for the skinny on collaboration
between the spook agency and the tech giant.

Reports
EPIC:

The DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today the National
Security need neither “confirm nor deny” the existence of any
records about the agency’s relationship with Google, even after
such a collaboration was widely reported in the national media.

Specifically, in the ruling
(PDF), Judge Brown wrote that the court was persuaded by the NSA’s
motion for summary judgment, including what sounds like a “we could
tell you, but then we’d have to kill you” declaration by Diane M.
Janosek, NSA Deputy Associate Director for Policy and Records:

The Declaration further explains that if NSA disclosed whether
there are (or are not) records of a partnership or communications
between Google and NSA regarding Google’s security, that disclosure
might reveal whether NSA investigated the threat, deemed the threat
a concern to the security of U.S. Government information systems,
or took any measures in response to the threat. As such, any
information pertaining to the relationship between Google and NSA
would reveal protected information about NSA’s implementation of
its Information Assurance mission.

So … Is the NSA working with Google? Is there anything to be
concerned about in such a relationship?

The court’s decision cites a Washington Post article
quoting former NSA director Mike McConnell saying that
collaboration between NSA and private companies like Google was
“inevitable.” So, draw your own conclusions.