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I'm just dying to wade in, but I know I can't. This isn't one of the small businesses that I can be vocal in and not damage, this is Google. I have a responsibility not to speak on behalf of my company.

However, the idiots at Privacy International have decided to feed the trolls at Slashdot, full to bursting with noise about how Google is going to sell out every user it ever had for the lowest dime. The tinfoil hats are out, light sabers are swishing through the air to the sound of numa numa...

What I can talk about is me. Those who know me sometimes argue that I do so exceptionally well, exceptionally often, and at length.

Do No Evil. One of the things that people tend to throw back at Google when they refer to them as the burgeoning evil is the idea that this is some kind of marketing slogan that we feed the world.

Those words aren't for you. They're for us.

Not a week goes by where someone doesn't end up using it in conversation. It's the litmus test - something we analyse all our own actions against to make sure that we're adhering to the ideals we believe in. It gets applied at every level, in every gathering, at every launch. It's something we all care about, and it's something we all believe in. It's the ground rules for anything that we do, and it's used, on the ground, by googlers regardless of what area they work in or what they do. It's been one of the best things about being at Google - everyone, at a fundamental level, knows that it's not enough to do good; that you have to not do evil.

We are what we do. If people would stop for a moment and ask around, they probably know someone who works at google. Given the prevalence of things like Facebook, I wouldn't be surprised if any internet user over the age of 13 knows a Googler within about three degrees of separation. If you really care this much about privacy, if you're really sitting there in a tinfoil hat wondering whether the sky is falling, go and find one of us. Talk to us about what it's like working at Google. Ask us how much we care about privacy. Ask us to what lengths we're willing to go, personally, to make sure that our Do No Evil motto is never knowingly violated.

The fact is, folks, that I believe in Do No Evil as much as I believe in Google. If I didn't believe in it, I wouldn't be working here - hell, I wouldn't be able to work here. And I know I'm not alone - we all feel this way. That's why the motto works - because we all believe in it, top to bottom. Companies aren't really nameless, faceless, amorphous entities; they're made up of people.

I Do No Evil. I with others, help ensure that others Do No Evil. Others like me, and there are tens of thousands of us now, do the same, every day. We, the people of Google, are Google, and we believe in these words.

Because they are ours.