Google Chairman Eric Schmidt: Government Surveillance Is Going To 'End Up Breaking The Internet'

Google Chairman and former CEO Eric Schmidt says that the ways that governments spy on other countries is going to "end up breaking the internet."

Schmidt, speaking at an event hosted by Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, says that the digital surveillance techniques of the NSA and other foreign intelligence agencies need reform, The National Journal's Dustin Volz reports.

"The simplest outcome is that we're going to end up breaking the internet," Schmidt said. "Because what's going to happen is, governments will do bad laws of one kind or another, and they are eventually going to say, 'We want our own internet in our country because we want it to work our way, right? And we don't want these NSA and other people in it.' And the cost of that is huge."

Google has had some experience with the NSA, which was able to circumvent Google's security to access customer data.