Google Desktop Search: Spyware?
p2pnet.net News:- “If you lined people up and said, ‘Stick your hand up if you want Google to know what pictures you have, and what MP3 files you have,’ I don’t think many would.”
So says Copernic ceo David Burns, quoted by Andrew Orlowski in The Register.
The topic? Google’s new Desktop Search, the application which, when you’ve downloaded and installed it, gives Google right of entry to your computer.
“Major brands don’t want to compromise their reputation. We’ve offered this in the past to potential partners, and had a major PC hardware company and major portals say ‘No, we can’t do this’,” Burns said, calling Desktop Search a privacy disaster just waiting to happen.
“With the subpoena-happy RIAA getting support from state law enforcement in its war on copyright infringers, Google represents a single point of compromise for millions of file traders,” says Orlowski.
Dioscaido writes on /. “Users of the Google Desktop Search software beware – it indexes your files across all users on your PC, bypassing user protections. The Google cache feature allows all users to browse the contents of messages and files it has indexed, irrespective of who is logged in. ‘This is not a bug, rather a feature,’ says Marissa Mayer, Google’s director of consumer Web products. ‘Google Desktop Search is not intended to be used on computers that are shared with more than one person’.
“Reminds me of a Neal Stephenson essay: ‘The Hole Hawg is dangerous because it does exactly what you tell it to. It is not bound by the physical limitations that are inherent in a cheap drill, and neither is it limited by safety interlocks that might be built into a homeowner’s product by a liability-conscious manufacturer. The danger lies not in the machine itself but in the user’s failure to envision the full consequences of the instructions he gives to it’.”
Referring to Google Print, another recent innovation, “this Google initiative demonstrates how valuable A9 user profiling will be in future,” said Marcel van Leeuwen, ceo of Germany’s YEALD.
A9.com is Amazon’s answer to Google. And it remembers your information.
“For if A9 (or one day Google) processes a user search, it would be very handy to understand what else this user is interested in,” said van Leeuwen.
Install Google Desktop Search and you get a unique application number, “and a message indicating whether the installation succeeded is sent back to Google so that we can make the software work better,” states the company.
“Additionally, when Google Desktop Search automatically checks to see if a new version is available, the current version number and the unique application number are sent to Google. If you choose to send us non-personal information about your use of Google Desktop Search, the unique application number with this non-personal information also helps us understand how you use Google Desktop Search so that we can make it work better. The unique application number is required for Google Desktop Search to work and cannot be disabled.
“Google Desktop Search uses the same cookie as Google.com and other Google services. If you send us non-personal information about your Google Desktop Search use, we may be able to make Google services work better by associating this information with other Google services you use and vice versa. You can opt out of sending such non-personal information to Google during the installation process or from the application preferences at any time.”
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See:-
privacy disaster – Google Desktop privacy branded ‘unacceptable’, The Register, October 15, 2004
bypassing user protections – Google Desktop Search Functions As Spyware, slashdot, October 15, 2004
or one day Google – Amazon A9: Really Scary !, p2pnet, September 19, 2004
services work better – Google intros Desktop Search, p2pnet. October 13, 2004
October 17th, 2004 at 4:56 am
When they plainly admit they will get your private information
for their own purposes, you should be wary.
Consider, if you will, Google Desktop Search pre-installed on new computers.
Every time you connect to google it silently reports changes in the system.
You might not know it is there or what it is doing.
Sounds like fun?
Of course, the only reason google wants information on your system,
linked with a unique id, is to server better ads.
Riiiiiiiiiight.
And Mr. RIAA just wants to ensure product quality by suing children.
October 17th, 2004 at 9:00 am
I installed it. I wasn’t impressed with how it didn’t tell me it was also scanning for files from programs such as, powerpoint, excel, AIM IM, outlook express. It was only after I ok’ed the initial indexing that I found the other preferences. Think if your going to be honest about what the program scans for ALL the options should be presented before indexing.
To their credit, google search can ignore directories if you add them to your preferences – problem is how many people would know what directories to ignore? Folders in program files or system32 can be just as telling as what is in outlook express.
I’ve uninstalled it and created another tin foil hat – old one was getting worn out after my A9 experience
October 22nd, 2004 at 4:49 pm
I uninstalled it this morning when the revelation hit me this is something akin to a keylogger. Advice to Google: password protect, encrypt the database index, and have separate indexes for different users on the same computer. Great idea, but still needs work.
February 11th, 2006 at 4:44 pm
There is a simple solution that Google can make available quickly to resolve this problem: Let the users define the encryption keys that google desktop would use to encrypt the data like RSA and ultimately opensource the encryption API so that neutral third parties like PGP or else could implement open encryption libraries that would not be controlled by Google.
That way, Google would effectively be unable to access to the user’s content, making subpeanas from the government to access the data virtually meaningless…