What the Tech?! Free tech support Archive
This is a read-only archive. No new posts or registrations. Privacy Page
Discussion

Privacy Invasion

2 min read

This thread's last reply is from . Advice, software, and links below may be out of date — treat specific steps and download links with caution.

Post #1 last edited
Google Desktop privacy branded 'unacceptable'

By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco
Published Friday 15th October 2004 22:47 GMT

Google's Desktop represents a privacy disaster just waiting to happen, a rival has warned. David Burns, Copernic CEO, says users should know that the giant ad broker intends to mix public and private queries in the future, leveraging its key moneyspinning product: contextual advertising.

"If you lined people and said, 'Stick your hand up if you want Google to know what pictures you have, and what MP3 files you have,' I don't think many would." Burns had offered these capabilities to partners before, but received some pushback.

Click on the headline for the full article.

Basically, what they are doing is giving away a free keylogger for an unlimited time, that rivals Net Nanny, BigBrother, Parental Controls and similar shareware products.
They say they are including an uninstaller, but it's a good bet uninstalling the program won't fully get rid of it, and you just know TIA is where all this information is going, even if Google doesn't look at it! :thumbdown:
What's worse is they are competing with Microsoft who will embed a similar product in their new OS along with popup blockers from a Microsoft Toolbar which will also carry Windows Media Player 10 and plugins! :rant:
Post #2
Web Desktop Moves Raise Security Alerts

Fri Oct 22, 6:05 PM ET


Matt Hicks - eWEEK

A pair of phishing vulnerabilities this week targeted at Google Inc. point to the kind of new threat Web companies can face as they expand their services into desktop applications, security experts say.

Because of errors in JavaScript code, Google found itself susceptible to phishing scams where an attacker could mimic its popular search site using a URL with the google.com domain, multiple researchers reported.

But the potential attacks didn't stop there, according to security and analyst firm Netcraft Ltd. They also could extend to gathering information from users using the recently released Google Desktop Search application, which indexes hard-drive files, e-mails, chat sessions and Web history and can display them along with Web results.

Google confirmed Thursday that it had fixed one of the vulnerabilities, and Netcraft on Friday said Google also had fixed a second, similar flaw. Google officials didn't return requests for comment for this story.

Click on headline for more.