Google Feature Raises Legal, Privacy Issues
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Unless you're not on the Internet, you can hardly have missed the brouhaha being raised over the latest upgrade to Google Desktop Search. It's marvelously convenient to be able to search all of the computers you own for the file you need, regardless of what computer you're presently working on. But is it worth the privacy you must give up to use it?
Normally I'd be very excited about new features offered for services coming from Google. If they hold the promise of helping me to get better organized by finding what I'm looking for more quickly, I'm all over it. And indeed, the newest upgrade to Google Desktop Search makes me and lots of other Google watchers very excited -- but probably not quite in the way that the search engine giant intended.
Google targeted the new feature to users who work regularly at more than one computer -- a home PC and a work PC, for example. Presumably it would also work as well with laptops or PDAs. The feature, which is an upgrade to Google's Desktop Search, allows users to search any of the computers in their personal network for a file, and grab that file. So if you're at home and you need some files from work, or -- all too common -- you're on the road with your laptop and you suddenly find you left the most up-to-date version of that important presentation on your computer at work, there's no need to panic or feel frustrated.
There's a catch, however, to the way Google enables the function to work. All of the computers that you will be searching must have copies of Google Desktop 3. The software then indexes the information on the computers' hard drives -- by default, Google Desktop 3 indexes everything unless you tell it otherwise (that's an important point that I will return to later). Google Desktop 3 then sends copies of these files to Google's own storage system. That's right, if you want to use the computer-to-computer search function, you must agree to allow Google to hold your data!
Google has said that it will encrypt all data that it receives from users' hard drives, and that it will hold no data longer than 30 days. Furthermore, it will restrict access to this data to only a very small number of its employees. Call me paranoid, but that isn't very reassuring to me. If you don't see the legal and privacy ramifications inherent in Google holding this kind of data, even for a short period of time, don't worry, I'm about to spell them out for you.
Next: Privacy Policy -- Not Enough Privacy? >>
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