Madmanmcp Posted February 12, 2006 Share Posted February 12, 2006 http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1925064,00.asp When the first reports came out about Google wanting to index personal hard drives there were these loud sirens going off in my head. Why would I want this? Why would anyone want some company to keep their personal information? Well here it is, the articles about how this information may be used against you or obtained by legal OR illegal methods. Real glad I listened to that little voice in my head that said "STAY AWAY! STAY VERY, VERY FAR AWAY!!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deverill Posted February 12, 2006 Share Posted February 12, 2006 Google does not "keep your personal information" unless you choose to use the new feature "Share across computers". The GDS itself doesn't send anything back to Google except the actual terms you are searching for. If, for instance, you have your bank account numbers in a file on your PC and use GDS and search for "bank account", the only thing sent to Google is "bank account" so that it can feed you ads. The search through your file information is all done locally. The new "share across computers" feature will store all kinds of stuff out there that shouldn't be and should be avoided like the plague. In other words, don't throw out the baby with the bath water. Unless Google goes insane and starts doing things that would be caught in a heartbeat by folks with protocol analyzers, the GDS itself is fine --- the sharing feature is what is pure evil and should never be used. Now, if your spouse walks up and types "lover" on your PC while you are sleeping then all bets are off regardless of the features you have turned on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madmanmcp Posted February 12, 2006 Author Share Posted February 12, 2006 The new "share across computers" feature will store all kinds of stuff out there that shouldn't be and should be avoided like the plague. Yes and if I read correctly this new "feature" will be the default (on). And as you know the average user leaves the defaults as is and will not attempt to reset or change the configuration and will be at risk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deverill Posted February 12, 2006 Share Posted February 12, 2006 There is no doubt that you are correct, Bob. I would never advise anyone to use GDS unless they had a "computer literacy" level somewhat on par with my own. The average user should just step away from the download Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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