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Google Wants To Get In Your Business
John Stith
Staff Writer
2006-02-10
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Oh how the mighty have fallen. Google has introduced a new feature into called "Search Across Computers" and it's got more than a few people up in arms about it. The new feature allows users to work through files on other computers in their network. Of course all these files are stored on Google's servers back in Cali.
 | | Search Across Computers |  |
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) about had a conniption when they saw what Google's got in store for their new Desktop 3 beta feature. They get to copy your hard drives. While the service is optional, it doesn't seem like the most prudent move for Google at this point considering their bad PR over China and their current battles with the federal government over searches.
"In order to share your indexed files between your computers, we first copy this content to Google Desktop servers located at Google. This is necessary, for example, if one of your computers is turned off or otherwise offline when new or updated items are indexed on another of your machines. We store this data temporarily on Google Desktop servers and automatically delete older flies, and your data is never accessible by anyone doing a Google search."
"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.
"If you use the Search Across Computers feature and don't configure Google Desktop very carefully-and most people won't-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 EFF argues there's a major conflict between Google's choices and the Electronic Communication Privacy Act of 1986 because the law is pretty limited in privacy protection to emails and other files that are stored with online service providers - much less privacy than the legal protection for the same information when it's one's home computer.
They go on to say that the lower level of legal protection could disappear if Google users your date for marketing purposes. They state Google says it's not yet scanning the files it copies from your hard drive in order to serve targeted advertising but it hasn't said it won't either.
"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."
Yep, no doubt about it. This definitely shows that evil is in the eye of the beholder because Google obviously won't see themselves that way if they do the targeted ads based on information users thought was private. The EFF is recommending to not using Google's Desktop 3. I'd make the same recommendation. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
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About the Author:
John is a staff writer for SecurityProNews covering cyber security.
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