-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [IP] Google Desktop 3 can move restricted data into Google's servers? Date: Fri, 03 Mar 2006 14:08:32 -0800 (PST) From: d f tweney <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Dave Farber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> References: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
This is true. If you've enabled the "Search Across Computers" feature in GD 3, it will upload an encrypted copy of any file you open/work on to Google. I wrote about this in more detail a couple weeks ago for Technology Review: http://www.technologyreview.com/InfoTech/wtr_16364,300,p1.html Google's Private Lives Its new desktop search application would make your personal files available for government searches without your knowledge. By Dylan Tweney A new search technology from Google makes it possible for law enforcement officials to examine personal documents from your hard drive, without your knowing it, according to the digital-rights advocacy organization Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Released last week, Google Desktop 3, the latest version of the company's desktop search utility, adds a "Search Across Computers" feature that automatically uploads files from a user's computer onto Google's servers. Then, when a search is performed on any computer owned by the user, Google Desktop will pull search results from both the Web and information stored on all the user's computers. Certainly, such a feature will be handy for anyone trying to coordinate a project from different locations. Yet the idea of turning over private files to a public company is worrisome to privacy advocates. In fact, in a press release, the EFF has urged consumers to avoid the Search Across Computers feature because it would make consumers' files more vulnerable to subpoenas from government investigators as well as private litigants. ... MORE: http://www.technologyreview.com/InfoTech/wtr_16364,300,p1.html On Fri, 3 Mar 2006, Dave Farber wrote: > do read the url and make safe decisions. djf > > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: Google Desktop 3 can move restricted data into Google's servers? > Date: Fri, 03 Mar 2006 13:25:26 -0800 > From: Joseph Lorenzo Hall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To: Dave Farber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > The below alert claims that Google Desktop 3 copies files from your > computer to Google's servers. I hope that this is incorrect, although > even copying an index of some sort of the contents of a computer with > sensitive information seems like a bad idea. -Joe > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Steve Chan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Mar 3, 2006 11:10 AM > Subject: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Google Desktop 3 can move restricted data into > Google's servers > > > Just FYI, if you have sensitive data on your computer (such as > data related to research projects subject to HIPPA, FERPA, GLBA) then > Google Desktop may put you in violatation: > > http://istpub.berkeley.edu:4201/bcc/Fall2006/905.html > > The Berkeley announcement doesn't lay out the sorts of things that > may be violated, but this message to the UCSD community is quite > clear: -- Dylan Tweney writer/editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] mobile: (650) 483-2896 http://dylan.tweney.com ------------------------------------- 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/
