What is Google up to?
This is a question that many people are asking right now. After months of denial Google finally released its Chrome browser. Many thought this was one of the best things since the invention of Linux. There were multiple articles praising the browser for the wonder that it is. Then, after a very short honeymoon some very disturbing information started to surface. It seems that the folks over at Google put a nice caveat in their EULA (something that most people do not read). The following text is enough to raise the hairs on the back of your neck.
"By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services."
With this small bit of information I (and many others) began to wonder where Google would get this information from. I began to speculate that they must be caching pages somewhere that could be retrieved later. This is almost like what they have been doing in China but now they are doing it to everyone and putting it in writing that they are doing it.
Less than 24 hours after this little part of the EULA was unearthed Google made an announcement that was posted on Ars Technica.
"Google’s Rebecca Ward, Senior Product Counsel for Google Chrome, now tells Ars Technica that the company tries to reuse these licenses as much as possible, "in order to keep things simple for our users." Ward admits that sometimes "this means that the legal terms for a specific product may include terms that don’t apply well to the use of that product" and says that Google is "working quickly to remove language from Section 11 of the current Google Chrome terms of service. This change will apply retroactively to all users who have downloaded Google Chrome."
This begs the question “how can you apply one ToS to a completely different product and not catch these things?”
Yes Chrome is still new but I do not think for a minute that this was an accident. I will be looking very closely at the language Google uses in the new ToS.
But that is not all, later that same day it was uncovered that Chrome indexes all pages viewed, including HTTPS/SSL pages. This means that once you are in your browser and you visit, say your bank, Chrome is going to index all of that information: charges credits, account numbers etc. This information can be called up later through a simple search in the Chrome browser or by parsing the index files stored on the local machine.
Now the argument can be made that you can turn this off or open an incognito browsing session where pages are not indexed or to clear personal data but how many novice users know how to do that?
How many are going to get sucked in and install this because they use Google everyday and upon seeing a new Google browser will go ahead and install it? The answer is simple; millions, just as many as get caught by spammers, phishsers and viruses every year. Next up on the list of things wrong is the finding made by CNET about Google tracking browsing habits.
"Provided that users leave Chrome’s auto-suggest feature on and have Google as their default search provider, Google will have access to any keystrokes that are typed into the browser’s Omnibox, even before a user hits enter.
What’s more, Google has every intention of retaining some of that data even after it provides the promised suggestions. A Google representative told CNET News that the company plans to store about 2 percent of that data–and plans to store it along with the Internet Protocol address of the computer that typed it."
This to me has reached the level of unacceptability. Google is showing themselves to be a very unsavory company. They have been leading up to this for sometime, they have tracked search habits of Google Desktop users, have tracked Google Toolbar, and instituted tracking of browsing habits by IP in China (just to get the business there) Google has been involved in people actually being arrested for the websites or searches they visited (Google provided IP information to the Chinese Government), now we see they are bringing this to the rest of the world.
Personally I am not going to be installing this browser ever and I know these glaring issues have prompted more than one enterprise to ban its installation on corporate systems one has even made it grounds for dismissal.
I think Google has a rather large amount of explaining to do and without some major changes their shiny new Chrome browser may tarnish and pit in the coming months.
As a foot note to this; Google has donated money to the campaign of Senator Barack Obama I think it is no coincidence
that Senator Obama’s running mate Joe Bidden also wants to have the government take over prosecution of P2P file sharers from RIAA and the MPAA. As well as institute a tax on internet usage. He has a legacy of trying to reduce people’s privacy on the net.
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