So today I wake, sit for breakfast, and turn on my Nexus 7 to get my morning dose of Slashdot, CNET News, and Twitter. I go through the typically routine and also check for application updates — oh goody new Firefox Beta and Google Keyboard. Tap update all.

Ding! Up pops a screen; Google Keyboard app. asking for new permissions: Network Communication and Read Your Contact Info. Really?! In a keyboard application? (Yes people app. is an abbreviation for application and not a trademark as Apple would like to think.) You got to be kidding me! In light of this week’s public exposure of the NSA’s surveillance of the American Public’s phone metadata, Google really wants you to let their keyboard application have network access! WHAT THE FUCK FOR!?

This just begs the question if Google is being secretly compelled by the NSA to install key-logger software to collect your passwords and your contact information. Or maybe Google is going to offer a new lost password search service.

NSA Related stories:

• Google CEO on NSA spy program: We’re definitely not involved
• NSA’s Verizon Spying Order Specifically Targeted Americans, Not Foreigners
• Report: Secret court order forces Verizon to turn over telephone records of millions
• The N.S.A.-Verizon Scandal
• No evidence of NSA’s ‘direct access’ to tech companies
• Twitterverse not letting up on Verizon-NSA uproar