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Google Copies Corporate Data to Google's Servers?
Penguinisto writes "According to Silicon.com, some CIOs have been seeing their company data being transferred to Google's servers as part of Google Desktop's functionality." From the article: "Mark Saysell, IT director at Coutts Retail Communications UK, said he is planning a network audit to find rogue installations, which will then be de-installed. New security measures will also be put in place to prevent further downloads. He said: 'Google has definitely over-stepped the mark and in turn is forcing IT departments to take a very draconian approach to machine security and web access.'"
I work in a bank and while I don't have files relating to customer information on my PC, I'm pretty sure I'd contravene some kind of law if I were to install Google Search & some files were transferred to Google. If I did have customer files, I'm almost certain some law would be broken if those files were sent to Google.
If CIOs or others want the kind of functionality & productivity that Google desktop search can provide, let Google sell local servers (same as they do for web search engines) so these companies can buy them and get the tools that way without the data ever leaving their networks & control.
I still submit they honor their "do no evil" credo.
Do No Evil Unless It's A Good Business Action
re: China
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
And... how are they to prevent employee's who WANT to turn it on from doing so? Just because THEY don't want it turned on doesn't mean they have any control over whether or not EMPLOYEE'S turn it on.
Are you nuts? The spreadsheet on your desktop might contain important customer data, sensitive personal communication, or god knows work. And Google is taking it upon itself to upload it, unencrypted, over the internet.
And uploading my data to a server controlled by a company that employs some of the most talented people in data mining is just asking for trouble.
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
I've never worked anywhere where IT policies like "no unauthorized software" were actually enforced. Hell, I've had HR people tell me they "won't" back terminations based on those policy violations because they're not severe enough. And if you're not firing people, you're not enforcing anything.
I know one guy who got shitcanned for it, but he was a prick and HIS boss came to me looking for some additional crap to throw at him and I suggested "Oh, how about the three system rebuilds we've done due to his software installs in the last six months" -- this just got tossed in as "wasting time."
Anyway, it's all well and good to say "enforce the policy" but most people outside of IT seek to usurp it at worst or at least treat it like yet another tech-geek OCD symptom.
Apart from depending on the data, it's also not clear that google is legally allowed to protect the data. At present they are being sued by the U.S. govt. which wants access to people's search history without any justification. This may or may not succeed, but certainly any request with just a hint of justification will be allowed.
Google is being stupid. The first person who gets kidnapped because their financial data was copied by Google and then accidentally leaked by the secret service will not be happy.
My company now forbids using Google Desktop because of this feature.
Yes, it's off by default.
Yes, you have to go out of your way to turn it on.
Yes, they keep track of what's installed on everyone's machine.
Yes, there are ways around that -- but for safety's sake, I now use MSN's local search.
Google's product is forbidden.
So google (you listening?) -- how about local-only version for us corporate folks, with the upload option completely removed?
We get a version that can be blessed by IT, you keep your user base.
Seems like a winner to me.
That's because they'd integrate it with a product that you already have, change the terms of service and force a mandatory update. Whereas with the Google product it's a software addon to your computer experince and you have to go download it yourself. It doesn't come preinstalled on 90% of computers.
Mike Scanlon
I actually sent out communication to our employees last week requiring users to disable the "Search Across Computers" functionality (which we're monitoring) rather than requiring them to remove it completely. Additionally, I have the Windows administrators investigating the possibility of using the GDS Enterprise solution, which has full AD support and the ability to disable Search Across Computers through Group Policy.