Does Google Desktop Search Pose Risks?

KingFishKingFish
edited October 2004 in Science & Tech
If you use shared or public computers, you have a new privacy risk to consider: Google Desktop Search.
Announced last week and currently available in a beta version, Google Desktop Search allows you to scour your hard drive for lost or forgotten documents. But it just may be too good at what it does, according to privacy and security experts, who say it poses risks for users who don't understand its power. Once installed, Google Desktop Search scours a computer for Microsoft Office files, AOL IM chat sessions, cached Web pages, and Outlook and Outlook Express e-mail files, and creates a searchable index. What's alarming to many is that Google Desktop Search can resurrect Web pages that were not meant to be viewed again, including online banking and brokerage transactions, as well as Web-based e-mail received and sent on the computer by previous users.
Source: PC World
Sign In or Register to comment.