Following an attack on Google by Chinese hackers last December, the tech giant alarmed Internet privacy watchdogs by reportedly seeking help from America’s shadowy National Security Agency. The close and undefined connection between Google and the NSA, better known for tapping phones than patching security holes for private companies, has raised the ire of Internet privacy activists.

In the past years Google has amassed an extensive amount of sensitive data about its users, and ties to the world’s top cyber-surveillance agency have made experts demand Google make public the details of its alliance with the NSA. Greg Nojeim, a senior counsel with the Center for Democracy and Technology, recently expressed his fears to Fox News, saying that his group is “very concerned about what information Google is sharing with the NSA.”

In addition to Nojeim’s group and a number of other privacy advocates, the prominent American Civil Liberties Union has recently become involved in the issue. The ACLU has started a letter-writing campaign to Google CEO Eric Schmidt highlighting what it calls the frightening ramifications of shacking up with the NSA, a military agency with limited government oversight.

The ACLU further explained that the NSA’s primary function is spying and that “in the last decade, it turned its surveillance efforts inward on the American people – in violation of the law and the Constitution.”

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