[Richard Kimball]

Possibly I'm being paranoid, but I know Google likes to store info on users. I am extremely uncomfortable giving Google authority to run a background program on my computer, and to automatically install updates. Anybody know anything about this?

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Google, like AOL....is a virus.

[txnativegop]

My wife downloaded it on our computer and this answers the questions I have had about it.

[mowowie]

I don’t blame you.
I try to disable EVERY auto update, even windows.

F-Them.

And i was thinking of updating Google Earth.
I’ll just stick to my current version thank you.

[Richard Kimball]

Hey guys. You're the most tech savvy guys I know. The agreement (forgot to take a screen capture of it before deleting) sounded like it was telling me the updater would stay resident on my computer and run in the background. It also didn't give me an option to use Google Earth 5.0 beta without the autoupdater.

Am I overreacting? I just don't like the idea of giving Google carte blanche to run on my computer and install whatever updates it feels like installing.

[mowowie]

Oh yea, in a map quest or anything like that i’ll never give my full address, I’ll give it a few numbers up.
Your just asking for junk mail.

[allmost]

Bad program IMO.

[Aliska]

I wouldn't have cancelled it, too. I did dl the older version of Google but never installed it. It's bad enough I have to let MS into my computer and NAV.

This is OT, but I did a stupid thing, try to be so careful. They had a little ad on youtube with a fun little test, then said they'd give you your pin # to get the results. It asked for cell #, just have a regular phone, so I entered that number which was really stupid.

I don't think anybody can do a reverse lookup because I've had it unlisted for years, but it looked like some singles site. I've got the phone off now, but am afraid someone is going to start pestering me, hope I don't have to change my number. Even if I had caller id, if calls came from a bunch of different numbers, I wouldn't know who they were especially since various ones I do business with on the web have multiple phone #'s. The area code could be an alert though, maybe.

[Straight Vermonter]

I’d be happy to get the place names on Google Earth to stay in English. I have reset the damn thing about 20 times.

[BonRad]

Architects worht the name etc working in areas with Streetviews with any kind of sophisticated zoning really should have GE, and many use Sketch-up anyways - which plugs in.

New version you can plot ANY local path and get mileage to within 1/10 mile.

Hate google but hate Microsoft too. Its just the way it is.

[GOP Poet]

I do not think you are paranoid at all. I would feel the same way.

[neb52]

Nothing new. Have you looked at your processes to look for the updater, you may find that you already have it.

[jeffc]

I only use Google maps. It still has great satellite view and that streeet stuff.

I just checked and I have nothing from Google running on my PC.

[puppypusher]

Why not just set your firewall to block the Google Updater from loading unless it asks you to.That way you have the control over it.

[Dallas59]

Got rid of it. Keeping it from starting in msconfig does nothing. You have to uninstall it.

[Star Traveler]

On my Macintosh, I have all programs have to get an “okay” from me, before they “reach out” on the Internet. Some I have pre-approved for certain IP numbers and for certain ports and others, there is no approval, but it comes up and asks me at the time (and I can either okay or cancel it there).

So, you could do something like that. I’m sure y’all got something like that on the Windows platform (if you’ve got Windows, that is)....

[PAR35]

Set up your firewall to keep the updater from calling home.

[CedarDave]

For your Tech ping list.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Google Updater is a Service rather than a TSR program. It can be disabled via the Services management area of Winders. I disabled it after finding it in a routine scan of services that startup at boot with Ace Utilities.

I recommend looking at not only startup in msconfig after an install of ANYTHING, but also a scan of services that get set to startup. You'd be surprised what gets put there. Adobe and Apple products are the biggest offenders.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

********Security Alert!********

For those who are interested in stopping Google from tracking all you see and do on the Web....here is some info and a weapon.

I recently installed a Firefox add on called Ghostery. This little jewel alerts you about the web bugs, ad networks and widgets on every page on the web with a small popup on the page you are viewing. Since installing it, I have noticed this popping up on every page I go to:

So I did some research and found that this insidious little bastard is a Java script that is initiated by code placed within the web site's html.
The obvious answer is to disable Java script...however, this did not work for me as I still received the pop up and...good or bad...I need to have Java script enabled.

I then turned to an old friend who has been running in the background on all my PCs for years...The Proxomitron.

This is a Proxy server that runs on my PC and allows me to shunt all connections through it on port 8080. I can also edit the Ad blocking Killfile it uses and in doing so can add this tidbit:

[^.]+.google-analytics.com/

Now when I visit webpages, the Google Analytics pop up no longer appears as Ghostery sees nothing happening because the Google Analytics website has been blocked by The Proxomitron.

This is easy to setup but if anyone is interested in doing it and needs an assist, just Freepmail me.

Of course, this is a Windows related fix. I haven't tried Ghostery in Firefox on my Linux Mint OS yet but I imagine that the Google Analytics will appear there as well. I'll have to figure out how to deal with it there later.

[Petronski]

Hopefully, you still have the 4.0 installer. It still works (for now).

GE 5.0 on my computer crashed more spectacularly than the Obamaconomy.