When Google Met WikiLeaks

By: Julian Assange

Narrated by: Tom Pile

In June 2011, Julian Assange received an unusual visitor: the chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt, arrived from America at Ellingham Hall, the country residence in Norfolk, England where Assange was living under house arrest. For several hours the besieged leader of the world’s most famous insurgent publishing organization and the billionaire head of the world’s largest information empire locked horns. The two men debated the political problems faced by society, and the technological solutions engendered by the global network - from the Arab Spring to Bitcoin. They outlined radically opposing perspectives: for Assange, the liberating power of the Internet is based on its freedom and statelessness. For Schmidt, emancipation is at one with US foreign policy objectives and is driven by connecting non-Western countries to American companies and markets. These differences embodied a tug-of-war over the Internet’s future that has only gathered force subsequently.

When Google Met WikiLeaks presents the story of Assange and Schmidt’s encounter. Both fascinating and alarming, it contains an edited transcript of their conversation and extensive, new material, written by Assange specifically for this book, providing the best available summary of his vision for the future of the Internet.

©2014 Julian Assange (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Critic reviews

"Narrator Tom Pile effectively channels the WikiLeaks founder's confidence, force, and acerbity." (AudioFIle)

Good information about wikileaks overall

Easy to listen, quick, and informative about Google's role and what is wikileaks. Very interesting.

A must-read

Along with Greenwald's disclosures via Snowden this short work shows clearly that Google is at the centre of current US strategies for global dominance, while people of courage and conscience continue to be persecuted.

Great perspective of information

Edited by Julian Assange, a good treatise on desire for openness. Can we trust any one person? one government? a group of governments. Supervision of bodies is the problem.

An interesting perspective. One worth considering.

Must Read 4 Those W/Interest In Futurology&Infosec

important book to read. reading a piece of history. wish every one would read/listen to this book.

Villian or Hero? It is a compelling presentation.

I think that everyone in America is familiar with the name Julian Assange (and Edward Snowden), but I think most are like I was before listening to this book. Poorly informed or totally uninformed on what exactly all the hoopla was about. This is the story of a whistle-blower who blew the whistle on the new world order with a transcript to back it up! His biggest problem is, this whistle, quite literally, affected EVERYONE in power! Most times, whistle-blowers call out individuals, or companies, or even industries, but always leaving them with some allies. In this case though, it was so far-reaching that Assange was left with no allies, at least in America (and with many of America's allies). I was enlightened and was glad to hear Assange's side of the story. That is why I gave it 4 stars. The narration wasn't bad either. But the story seemed to cover the same ground repeatedly and there is a large section of this read where the author introduces you to several of the characters who took part in the interview, but then refers to each of them only by initials throughout the rest of the interview. If you don't take the time to write down the names beside their initials when you first hear them, listening to the rest of the interview is confusing and frustrating. It is also a good idea to research on the internet each of the names dropped so you get an idea of exactly who they are. Well worth listening to, but with some issues.

You know if you know

Thank you to Julian Assange and everyone involved with Wikileaks. All of you put yourselves at great personal risk to produce this book and the objective truth about government and cooperations alike. We are in your debt.

It seems those who are suspicious of Google have good cause

I especially liked the comparison of what Eric Schmidt wrote in his book about Julian Assange's motivations for redacting portions of leaks and what Assange actually said.

This should be taught in schools

I really enjoyed this one, I knew much of the topics before hand but not all the details and there where many details.

Important read if you care about the future

Information & a true story you'll want to know.

The name "Google" will be remembered in history as the infamous organization that attempted to make humanity into slaves.

Duplicity incarnate.

4th amendment is sacred

well, i'm sure my internet browsing habits are getting tracked now. rip 4th amendment.