Google’s desktop search tool and personal privacy
Google has recently released a new desktop search tool that allows you to search your hard drive for information in the same way as you use Google to search information on the web. This is an exciting new technology and brings more convenience to end users. But, be careful about the privacy conerns with this new tool. The general public often get exicited about new technologies and hurry to try them out without realizing the implications. Educate yourself before you install the tool on your machine.
CNN has an article saying users could unwittingly let others see sensitive information. According to Richard Smith, a privacy-and-security consultant in Cambridge, Massachusetts, “Google Desktop is a great organizer for finding information on your hard drive. But it’s really a spying program. If it’s installed on your computer and somebody else starts poking around, they can learn a lot about you.”
If you are sharing a computer with someone, you’d better be very careful about what information should be stored on your computer. For example, do you use an e-mail client that saves messages in local hard drive? Do you regularly visit some websites that you don’t want others to know? (Because your browser automatically saves the visited pages for a while in the cache, you’d better clear the browsing history and location bar history every time after use.) Do you store other sensitive information on the computer such as banking account, credit card numbers, usename/passwords? With google’s new tool, it would be very easy for other users of the computer to find this kind of information on the hard drive. Read more about privacy and desktop search.