Posted on 02/10/2006 12:12:17 AM PST by snarks_when_bored
Consumers Should Not Use New Google Desktop
San Francisco - Google today announced a new "feature" of its Google Desktop software that greatly increases the risk to consumer privacy. If a consumer chooses to use it, the new "Search Across Computers" feature will store copies of the user's Word documents, PDFs, spreadsheets and other text-based documents on Google's own servers, to enable searching from any one of the user's computers. EFF urges consumers not to use this feature, because it will make their personal data more vulnerable to subpoenas from the government and possibly private litigants, while providing a convenient one-stop-shop for hackers who've obtained a user's Google password.
"Coming on the heels of serious consumer concern about government snooping into Google's search logs, it's shocking that Google expects its users to now trust it with the contents of their personal computers," said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "Unless you configure Google Desktop very carefully, and few people will, Google will have copies of your tax returns, love letters, business records, financial and medical files, and whatever other text-based documents the Desktop software can index. The government could then demand these personal files with only a subpoena rather than the search warrant it would need to seize the same things from your home or business, and in many cases you wouldn't even be notified in time to challenge it. Other litigants—your spouse, your business partners or rivals, whoever—could also try to cut out the middleman (you) and subpoena Google for your files."
The privacy problem arises because the Electronic Communication Privacy Act of 1986, or ECPA, gives only limited privacy protection to emails and other files that are stored with online service providers—much less privacy than the legal protections for the same information when it's on your computer at home. And even that lower level of legal protection could disappear if Google uses your data for marketing purposes. Google says it is not yet scanning the files it copies from your hard drive in order to serve targeted advertising, but it hasn't ruled out the possibility, and Google's current privacy policy appears to allow it.
"This Google product highlights a key privacy problem in the digital age," said Cindy Cohn, EFF's Legal Director. "Many Internet innovations involve storing personal files on a service provider's computer, but under outdated laws, consumers who want to use these new technologies have to surrender their privacy rights. If Google wants consumers to trust it to store copies of personal computer files, emails, search histories and chat logs, and still 'not be evil,' it should stand with EFF and demand that Congress update the privacy laws to better reflect life in the wired world."
For more on Google's data collection:
http://news.com.com/FAQ+When+Google+is+not+your+friend/2100-1025_3-6034666.html?tag=nl http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/01/21/google_subpoena_roils_the_web http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/01/20/EDGEPGPHA61.DTL http://news.com.com/%20Bill+would+force+Web+sites+to+delete+personal+info/2100-1028_3-6036951.html
Contact:
Kevin Bankston
Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
bankston@eff.org
"Your files are our files...get over it!"
Maybe I need to short some more GOOG at tomorrow's open...
"Google loves you" ping...
Sound like good advise to me.
That's gotta be the dumbest "feature" ever invented. Or that ever will be invented.
Who's stupid enough to do that? democRats?
Absolutely.
It would be nice, though, if Hillary's laptop had that feature enabled, wouldn't it?
I'm sure Marty can scare up some of "her" photos with his current resources.
That should be enough to convince anyone not to use this feature.
There's an internet sucker born every nanosecond, I fear...
I noticed you picked your time frame very carefully in your graph.
Try this one http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=GOOG&t=2y&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=
Of course I picked my time frame carefully! If you ever intend to short a stock, you'd better do so, too! (grin)
In truth, though, I'm not shorting Google now; the time to short would've been last week...
Actually your statement reflects a sever short sightedness and lack of understanding of the huge need for something like this.
Imagine a company that has several field offices. Imagine trying to find that lost order for 4 million dollars worth of whatever you sell. I arrived in the Denver office, was scanned to pdf and Emailed somewhere and that's the last anyone ever saw it. OR Imagine trying to find that second set of books that your thieving accountant is keeping somewere on your computers.
There IS NO COMPETING technology for corporate wide indexing. None.
If Google could either encrypt the data with keys stored only on YOUR computer, or/and index only the words in the document (like it does with web pages) it could get around this objection and have another killer product.
EFF = Electronic ACLU
I bailed at 442.37. Not looking to get back in for a while. (Got in last time at 257.)
Nothing wrong with this feature as long as you know what you are doing. The vast majority do not, however.
Good ride...
If a position is sound, I support it; if not, I don't.
It's a question of how much control one has over what's indexed and what's stored on Google's servers. Most users will have neither the sophistication nor the inclination to try to deal with this question, I suspect.
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