It's very unlikely that a court would want any of that information and sign a warrant for it, so you don't have to worry about how Google protects your information from court orders. If you boss writes Google and asks whether or not you're gay, that request is most likely going to be routed to /dev/null. If your boss gets a warrant and a judge signs it, then that's another story. Google has to comply with the law, after all. So does Apple, Microsoft, and every other company in the world.

As for protecting your information from your friends, I think Google does a pretty good job in the situations you mention. Google doesn't share your search history with anyone. You don't have to pick a gender to use Google+. You don't have to list your race, ethnicity, or religion. And, Google+ provides a number of privacy controls so you don't inadvertently share your leftist feelings with your conservative boss.

The absolute safest way to protect information is to not disclose it to anyone. That's all Schmidt is saying. If you're planning to overthrow the government, don't post your plans to Google Docs. If you're just worried that your boss won't like you, though, then you can be a little more relaxed, and share things via Google+ with close and trusted friends. Then, the main attack vector is no longer through Google; the risk is that your friends will re-share something (offline or otherwise) that you didn't want them to. And that's just life as usual.

The fact that this comment has been downvoted is as hilarious as it is depressing. Are we not even going to pretend any more that on HN downvotes are for bad comments, not comments we don't entirely agree with?

It's all he should have said, but it seems to me that he said more.