Google CEO Eric Schmidt has claimed that those seeking to protect their privacy must have something to hide.

In an interview with US network CNBC, he defended the search company’s privacy record before stating: “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”

Schmidt followed that by claiming “If you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is search engines, including Google, do retain that information for some time”, before admitting that “it is possible that information will be made available to the authorities”.

You may also have noticed that if you want to set up a new Gmail account you are now often asked for your mobile phone number so that Google can text you an authorisation code – this is apparently to cut down on spam – so obviously they delete your number after you have confirmed your ID right?  – umm,  no, they keep it.