Google Desktop privacy branded 'unacceptable'

[R.A. Hettinga]

<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/15/google_desktop_privacy/print.html>

The Register

Biting the hand that feeds IT


Google Desktop privacy branded 'unacceptable'
By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco (andrew.orlowski at theregister.co.uk)
Published Friday 15th October 2004 22:47 GMT

Google's Desktop represents a privacy disaster just waiting to happen, a
rival has warned. David Burns, Copernic CEO, says users should know that
the giant ad broker intends to mix public and private queries in the
future, leveraging its key moneyspinning product: contextual advertising.

"If you lined people and said, 'Stick your hand up if you want Google to
know what pictures you have, and what MP3 files you have,' I don't think
many would." Burns had offered these capabilities to partners before, but
received some pushback.

"Major brands don't want to compromise their reputation. We've offered this
in the past to potential partners, and had a major PC hardware company and
major portals say 'No, we can't do this'", Burns told us.

With the subpoena-happy RIAA getting support from state law enforcement in
its war on copyright infringers, Google represents a single point of
compromise for millions of file traders.

Copernic offers a native Windows search application both as a free download
and as a branded offering to partners, and has toyed with merging the two
before. But it's realized personal archives are very different to Google's
snapshot of the web - and the queries are different too.

"I don't deny desktop and web on the same page is attractive," he added.
"But we're not going to do it."

Burns was former US chief of FAST, which created the All The Web search
site before selling it to Overture. Yahoo! now owns both.

Google Desktop Search allows users to opt out of sending the company back
detailed usage data, but it isn't possible to firewall it completely. Much
more ominously, reckons Burns, Google's product manager Marissa Mayer said
she expected the private queries to generate more hits for google.com. Most
people, she believed, would choose to combine personal and web searches
resulting in more revenue for Google's ad business.

"As a result, we will serve more Web results pages and more ads, and those
ads have more chances of getting clicked on. So there will be incremental
Web search revenue from this product," she told the Washington Post.

In January, Eric Schmidt said the company's goal was to create a "Google
that knows you". With the addition of personal information, it's just taken
a giant step towards that goal.
-- 
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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
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