Even downloading the Desktop Search tool is a monumental step for me. Having been online now for twenty years, I have developed many sound thoughts about protecting myself online after having trusted some things a bit too much. When speaking to a potential client from Australia the other day, I had told him I felt we all had to suffer one online disaster as a rite of passage. I do not want this disaster to sound unavoidable, but sometimes we can invite problems in. I have had many “small disasters”—a few spyware programs, trojans galore, adware left & right, backdoor robots—but each of these were overcome. My biggest disaster was losing two years of client reports when my web host’s servers were confiscated by Federal Authorities from the reseller hosting company I was using. One bad apple destroyed 135 other innocent websites. So, please excuse me if I sound a little overly cautious about inviting in a web technology.
While installing the Google Desktop search tool I bumped into a warning from Google. This is not the usual modus operandi, so I read it very carefully.
Hmmm. I need to read that privacy policy. In it, Google fortunately covers the most important subject in my eyes and that is what is Google able to see and not see, and what do I give them in return for them allowing me to download this supposedly cool search tool:
What does Google Desktop do with the information on my computer?
So that you can easily search your computer, the Google Desktop application indexes and stores versions of your files and other computer activity, such as email, chats, and web history. These versions may also be mixed with your Web search results to produce results pages for you that integrate relevant content from your computer and information from the Web.
Your computer's content is not made accessible through Google Desktop to Google without your explicit permission.
For more information about what Google Desktop can do, please see the Product FAQ.
So basically, if you use the Advanced Features, there is the possibility Google can use your computer’s Google Desktop index and activity reports. I didn’t see a clear way to tell Google it can or can’t access my computer, so how do I know it isn’t?
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