----- Forwarded message from David Farber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ----- From: David Farber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thu, 5 May 2005 15:38:46 -0400 To: Ip <[email protected]> Subject: [IP] Google's Web Accelerator is a big privacy risk X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.728) Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Begin forwarded message: From: Brian Carini <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: May 5, 2005 11:06:12 AM EDT To: David Farber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Google's Web Accelerator is a big privacy risk Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dave, (for IP if you wish) Google is now offering a download and service called Web Accelerator (see http://webaccelerator.google.com/support.html ), which purportedly speeds up a broadband connection through proxy and caching. The application routes all page requests (except https) through Google's servers. Each page request is logged by Google. I've said this before: I really like Google, but they are getting dangerous. Google has a great image as a good company. They have engendered a great amount of trust through their "Don't Be Evil" motto. And I think they really mean it. But the fact is that they are stockpiling a perilous amount of personal information about their users. Already, Google logs every search request with its IP address. Google has acknowledged this log in a number of interviews. But, they have never answered why they keep such a log. The search log by itself is not too harmful since the IP address identifies a computer and not a person. The searches cannot easily be traced to a particular person without help from the ISP, unless a person likes to Google their own name frequently. If Google's search log makes you feel uneasy, Google Web Accelerator is much more threatening to privacy. "When you use Google Web Accelerator, Google servers receive and log your page requests." (http://webaccelerator.google.com/privacy.html ) In other words, every non-encrypted web transaction is recorded permanently at Google. This page request log could be used to create a near-perfect reconstruction of a persons web use. Every page view, every search on every engine, every unencrypted login, any information (including name, address, email address, etc) submitted using the HTTP: GET or POST methods will stored in this page request log. I expect that it would be possible to identify a large proportion of individuals from their page request log. I don't think that Google currently has any evil intent for this data. That would be at odds with their "Don't' Be Evil" motto. I assume the current reason for collecting this data is simply for research. But, over time, slogans change, companies are bought and sold, and data is frequently repurposed, sold, or stolen. Then privacy will suffer. Google admits, "Web Accelerator receives much of the same kind of information you currently send to your ISP when you surf the Web" (see http://webaccelerator.google.com/support.html#basics5 ) But the difference is that my ISP doesn't keep that information, along with my search history and every email that I send and receive. Or if they do, they aren't telling me about it. Brian Carini ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as [EMAIL PROTECTED] To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/ ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org";>leitl</a> ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07078, 11.61144 http://www.leitl.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE http://moleculardevices.org http://nanomachines.net
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