Byte by Bite

Google Desktop, a good thing or a security risk

by Marv Dealy

“The download of the program is fast, and even the indexing of the personal files and emails took about an hour. Now instead of using the Microsoft “search” on the Start button, I can Google my own computer. Google then seems to classify all new entries thereafter so it needs no updating. Maybe there is a downside to this that you can tell us about?”

I’m not using Google Desktop, so Shelly’s question sent me to the learning curve to see what’s behind the scenes. Desktop appears to be a great thing for folks who have a tough time with filing stuff and remembering where it went. When you install Desktop, it performs a one time indexing of your computer’s contents. After that initial process, each time you do anything on your computer, Google will take note, whether it’s an instant message session, an incoming or outgoing email, or a new word processing document or picture.

The search you do with Desktop searches both the regular Google databases as well the newly created one about your own computer and merges the results, mixing the items the search found on your computer with listings from the “regular” Google search databases.

Google says that the information it gathers about you and your computer and the stuff it finds on it is kept entirely on your computer, with none of it being sent to their computers.

That being said, there is a feature within Google Desktop called “search across computers” that will cause copies of everything on your computer to be copied to Google’s server farms so that you can access that same stuff from any of your computers.

Let’s look at that again. The point of the “search across computers” feature is that it assumes you use multiple computers and you need to access the very same documents from each of these computers, but don’t want to lug them around on a USB thumb drive or other portable device. To enable you to access your stuff from any computer requires the Desktop program to be installed on all computers you want to include in this scheme, and that means the contents of all of those computers will be copied over to Google’s server farms, wherever the heck they are.

Let’s assume for the sake of argument that someone steals your Google password, which is required to access Google stuff. That hacker would then be able to access everything on all your computers, such as tax returns or your special picture collection or whatever else you really don’t want to be the subject of a subpoena.

According to the folks at Wikipedia.org, “Google Desktop V.3 contains certain features that raise serious security and privacy concerns. Specifically, the share across computers feature that introduces the ability to search content from desktop to desktop greatly increases the risk to users’ privacy. If Google Desktop V.3 is set to allow Search Across Computers, files on an indexed computer are copied to Google’s servers. The potential for information stored on their computers to be accessed by others if they enable this feature of Google Desktop V.3 on their computers should be seriously considered. Those who have confidential data on their work or home computers should not enable this feature.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Desktop)

So to get back to Shelly’s question, yes, Desktop is handy, but you need to turn off the search across computers feature to keep your stuff private and less subpoenable.

Smack the Penguin

Stressed over the fact you haven’t gotten a new Sony PS3? Maybe what you need is a little Friday freebie, in this case a neat little game you can play online, or download and play whenever you want for that matter with the flash players we’ve talked about here before.

Today’s game involves a penguin jumping off a rock and a snowman who, batting right handed, attempts to send the little penguins off toward right field. Great fun, and quite addicting – check it out at http://n.ethz.ch/student/mkos/pinguin.swf

When the screen comes up, you’ll see a rock to the right of the screen with a penguin standing on the top. Click your mouse on the Yeti and the penguin will jump off the rock. Click on the Yeti again when you want him to swing the bat and if you’re a good shot you’ll connect and send the darling little penguin flying through the air or skidding across the snow, depending on your timing. A little flag will drop down to show you your distance, click on OK to play again. No blood or guts, although you might not want to push this on your younger children.

Urban Legends

I’m never sure if I repeat this too often – check out that story you just got by email before you send it along to everyone on your email list. Back in the dark ages before email, urban legends took a lot longer to circulate; I mean how many people can you get around a water cooler at one time? Now, a click of the button and your favorite Aunt can send out a dire warning not to use public toilets because of vicious brown spiders lurking under the lids who want to bite your butt.

Other warnings have included allegations of rat poop in the glue on envelopes and of horribly mutant chickens with no eyes or feathers used by KFC. Auntie also sent along warnings about not going to shopping malls because I could be drugged by a perfume sample and robbed. If I see a $5 bill lying on the ground in the parking lot I have to leave it laying there, because it might well have been put here by a sex predator waiting underneath my car to grab my leg.

That said, I got a legend in the email the other day from a cousin who generally takes care to check the accuracy of stuff before he passes it along. In this case, the story of a lawyer was apparently to compelling.

It seems that a lawyer insured a box of cigars he’d purchased against fire. Mysteriously, they all burned up in a series of small fires. The lawyer sued the insurance company for the loss of the cigars and the judge reluctantly found for the lawyer, awarding him $15,000.

Upon cashing the check, the lawyer was arrested for arson for intentionally setting fire to his insured property, sent to prison for two years and fined $22,000.

The story went on that this was an actual incident and that a prize had been given to this lawyer for being the evilest of all. The problem was, it wasn’t really true. A quick search of Snopes.com revealed that this was first posted to the newsgroup alt.smokers.cigars in early 1996 and has circulated as a “true story” ever since. Earlier references to an accountant who deducted eighty cartons of cigarettes from a tax return due to loss by fire date back to 1965 (http://www.snopes.com/crime/clever/cigarson.asp).

Cousin Bob’s right about one thing – it’s a great story about someone trying to take advantage of a situation and getting caught up in completely unforeseen consequences. If you don’t pass this story along to at least 144,000 people in the next 90 minutes, a large dove with digestive tract problems will land on your head before the day is over. I know because this actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbor’s ex-mother-in-law’s second husband’s cousin’s beautician.