The executive chairman of the search engine giant Google Inc. has made a very bold prediction. According to his statement, internet censorship that’s done by the governments of countries all over the globe would come to an end in a decade. He said that people will be able to overcome the pitfalls of government surveillance with the better use of encryption. The executive of the world’s biggest web search company made a pitch at a lecture at John Hopkins University on Wednesday for removing the internet censorship that’s done in China and various other countries that have restricted freedom of speech. He stated that everyone should be connected to the internet and should be able to protect their information against spying.

He was of the opinion that the power has shifted considerably in recent years. Now the process is something like first the government tries to block individuals, then infiltrates them, but eventually the people end up winning. He said that there was a very real possibility that internet censorship could be eliminated permanently within a decade. For a long while, Schmidt has spoken out against the limitations that have been placed against freedom of expression and the restricted access to internet for people in numerous parts of the globe.

Earlier this year, the executive also traveled to North Korea for this very cause because that country is simply disconnected from the rest of the world. As far as this trip is concerned, he said that it was a failure as they weren’t invited back, but they would try again. The timing of the trip had been criticized by the US government as the trip was made shortly after a long range rocket had been launched by North Korea. Schmidt said that for now, the goal regarding North Korea was to help people in connecting with the rest of the world. He said that he believed that once the connectivity is made, the country will start understanding other systems and will open up.

As far as the home front is related, Google is only one of the various tech companies that are embroiled in the controversy of the extent of spying that’s done by the US government. Edward Snowden, former spy agency contractor has disclosed top secret documents, which show that the National Security Agency has gathered its intelligence by tapping into the resources of Google and other communication links. The executive chairman said that if these statements were true, then the activities were potentially illegal and outrageous.

Google, where Schmidt was CEO until 2011, has also been criticized for intercepting data in the past years. The firm had acknowledged in 2010 that the fleet of cars that are managed by the company for mapping the streets of the world had accidentally collected personal data such as passwords from consumer wireless networks for about two years. Earlier in this very week, the search engine giant had also agreed to pay $17 million for bypassing the privacy settings in the iPhone’s web browser and had tracked the users.

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