Its interesting to see how Google’s attitude towards many things have changed throughout the years. In a recent article posted on ZDNET, Google’s representatives officially note that their new “Search Across Computers” feature in version 3 of their Desktop Search is indeed a concern for enterprise organizations. But their answer is somewhat gauling. They say:
“At the end of the day, each company should make its own decision. If they are uncomfortable, they shouldn’t enable the feature,” Ku said. “It’s about what a company deems to be best corporate policy.”
This is true — but each company’s policy will only be as good as those that implement it. Since Google’s desktop search utility doesn’t have a simple method for administrators to limit the functionality of the tool (its either all or nothing, unless you have the enterprise tool) — all it takes is one person on a companies interanet to download, install and enable this feature and suddenly, the organization is exposed.
But as I said, this isn’t the type of answer that I would have expected from Google — a company who’s mantra is “do no evil”. While the company skirts close to a gray area — they certainly have provided software that potentially could be (and I’m sure has been) abused by its users simply because they don’t completely understand the new functionality.
–Terry
Comments
One response to “Google acknowledges security concerns with Desktop Search V.3”
Yeah. but as an individual I have none of these concerns.
A good backup and don’t put stuff on your computer that
you don’t want others to see, is all that’s needed.
Who cares about anybody looking at my 5000+ family
album pictures or emails. Not me.