U.S. government contracts
Following media reports about PRISM, the NSA's massive electronic surveillance program, in June 2013, several technology companies were identified as participants, including Google.[426] According to unnamed sources, Google joined the PRISM program in 2009, as YouTube in 2010.[427]
Google has worked with the United States Department of Defense on drone software through the 2017 Project Maven that could be used to improve the accuracy of drone strikes.[428] In April 2018, thousands of Google employees, including senior engineers, signed a letter urging Google CEO Sundar Pichai to end this controversial contract with the Pentagon.[429] Google ultimately decided not to renew this DoD contract, which was set to expire in 2019.[430]
In 2022 Google shared a $9 billion contract from the Pentagon for cloud computing with Amazon, Microsoft, and Oracle.[431]