The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has announced that new features added in the February 9 release of Google Desktop software pose significant security risks and fail to ensure user privacy.
A group of privacy protection experts has issued a brief warning to individuals and businesses stating: “Do not use the latest version of Google Desktop,” as user information will be stored on Google’s database servers.
The new feature “Share Across Computers” retains web browsing history, Microsoft Office files, PDFs, and text documents on Google’s servers, allowing users to perform remote searches from different web browsers. However, according to EFF, this is a point that malicious hackers can easily exploit.
Google defends that user information is stored on their servers to prepare for situations where the user’s personal computer is inactive or offline while the updated information is organized on another computer. Google repeatedly states: “We temporarily store this information on Google’s servers and automatically delete old content, and your information will not be accessed by anyone else when using Google’s search engine.”
Google claims users can manually select “Clear my Files” to delete information on the server or choose “Don’t Search These Items” to exclude specific files or storage locations from the server’s index. However, EFF finds this approach inadequate, likening it to users exposing their vulnerabilities, especially considering the government may intervene in personal matters, particularly in the context of the US government confronting Congress over the “phone tapping campaign” disclosures.
Another point worth mentioning is that Google itself must work to ensure the security of its Google Desktop search application. In November 2004, Google hastily provided patches for security holes when this application exposed users to information theft (“man-in-the-middle data leak attacks“).
TRUNG NGUYỄN
