Google Desktop Search Functions As Spyware

dioscaido writes "Users of the Google Desktop Search software beware -- it indexes your files across all users on your PC, bypassing user protections. The Google cache feature allows all users to browse the contents of messages and files it has indexed, irrespective of who is logged in. 'This is not a bug, rather a feature,' says Marissa Mayer, Google's director of consumer Web products. 'Google Desktop Search is not intended to be used on computers that are shared with more than one person.'" Reminds me of a Neal Stephenson essay: "The Hole Hawg is dangerous because it does exactly what you tell it to. It is not bound by the physical limitations that are inherent in a cheap drill, and neither is it limited by safety interlocks that might be built into a homeowner's product by a liability-conscious manufacturer. The danger lies not in the machine itself but in the user's failure to envision the full consequences of the instructions he gives to it."

Comments

Uh, What About File Permissions?

[John_Booty]

When you run GDS, it runs under your Windows login's security context.

Therefore, it only indexes the files that you have permission to see. The article describes a scenario where a user installs GDS and reads pages out of the browser's cache that were left there by other people who used the same Windows login.

Of course those files are visible to GDS. They could have also been retrieved by simply browsing through the cached files normally or using Window's crappy built-in search tool.

Conclusion: DUH. Nothing to see here, move along people...

Missing feature from Google Desktop?

[kleinux]

It should come with a tinfoil hat.