info NeoGnostic: More on Google catches!

: Name: Chris Armstrong; Location: Aberystwyth, Wales, United Kingdom

I am the owner and managing director of Information Automation Limited (IAL), a company that specialises in research, consultancy and training for the information profession. We are particularly interested in all forms of electronic information resources (e-journals, e-books, etc) and I teach a course in electronic publishing at the Department of Information Studies in Aberystwyth. Drilling down still further(!), my interests centre on the quality and evaluation of electronic information, and in the thinking that underpins activities in library and information science.

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Wednesday, February 15, 2006

More on Google catches!

Following my post last week, Google's new feature caches & catches your data, colleague Karen Blakeman [16/02/2006 - Karen has just posted this on the UKeiG blog]has pointed me to the posting by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF): Google Copies Your Hard Drive - Government Smiles in Anticipation. I love the "Government Smiles in Anticipation"!
The EFF says:

"Coming on the heels of serious consumer concern about government snooping into Google's search logs, it's shocking that Google expects its users to now trust it with the contents of their personal computers," said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "If you use the Search Across Computers feature and don't configure Google Desktop very carefully—and most people won't—Google will have copies of your tax returns, love letters, business records, financial and medical files, and whatever other text-based documents the Desktop software can index.

Their advice: do NOT use it. I can only wonder at the logic or motives behind making such as announcement within days of all the concern about the Justice Department's subpoena to hand over data, which Google is fighting.

>>Technorati tags: Google; desktopsearch