Eric Schmidt on Internet privacy, connectivity & more

BANGALORE, INDIA: For India's telecom minister Kapil Sibal, internet governance is an oxymoron. "The internet does away with the concept of sovereignty," he said, but in the same breath, he said: "We are wedded to the freedom of expression and will do nothing to diminish that freedom."

That is something Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt would be happy about even as he admits Google is bias towards putting stuff up rather than taking it down.

Eric feels India is one of the few countries that have strict internet regulations. "In India, there is a need for some clarifications on laws governing the internet," said Eric, referring to the Section 66 A of IT Act, at Google's Big Tent Activate in New Delhi on Thursday which was aired live by NDTV.

Section 66A of the IT Act 2000 states that a person must be punished for sending information on computers that is grossly offensive or has menacing character.

Eric said: "We obviously cannot police everything that is put up on the Net. But, if something objectionable is put up, and it is flagged to us - by the government , or police, or even by private citizens - in each case, we follow the same procedure. If there is a court order against it, we will remove it."

India made an average of 13 requests a day, next only to 45 from the US, to Google for access to personal web details of web users during 2012. Between January and June 2012, Google in response to a court order, removed 360 search results.