During the radio show Friday a listener was wondering about the new Google Desktop search and privacy. My response was pretty much to the tune of: I’m cautious, and not yet completely informed (just recently started using this myself), but am not too worried.

I remember this same concern when Gmail came out and Google said they’d be supporting the ‘free’ software by using context sensitive ads. Privacy advocates were understandably concerned that Google would be scanning the body of their emails. At the time I thought this was odd because every spam and many virus scanners already do this. The bottom line is we put our privacy in the line of fire all the time online, so it seemed sort of silly to be upset about the possibility that Google would go all Big Brother on us and actually have humans reading the contents of those emails. It’s on their servers, so they can look at the mail any time they want, assuming the contents aren’t encrypted (I’ve never checked to see if they are or not) but that would be business suicide for this type of breach. Now that they are an IPO, it even brings them under more scrutiny for remaining an ethical and above boad company.

Now comes Google Desktop search — which as I said when I announced it in an earlier entry. thank god somebody fixed Microsoft’s search! I would have paid Google to do this and they did it for free. Yeah, yeah, I know, it’s not really free because now they are on my desktop and look at all the marketing data they can collect. Well, here is a newsflash: Google has been on my desktop for years! I’ve used their toolbar and deskbar sinced the days they released it. I’ve used Google as my default search engine of choice since first quarter 2000. Therefore, Google should already have marketing information about me, and I trust Google. I trust that what they are doing is not going to cross any lines. Is this blind or foolish trust? Absolutely not. If I have something really, really important than I’m going to encrypt it, period. I check for locks and HTTPS connections before buying anything online, and I’m especially careful about buying from newer online outlets. I encrypt files and folders that are important and contain sensitive information.

I just subscribed to Danny Sullivan’s search engine watch blog and he’s following the Google Desktop search and privacy scenario as well:

Another Google Desktop security issue to consider. I was forwarded a note of shock about someone who used Google Desktop and found it was caching his banking details (the same person, it should be said, failed to eliminate those details in the screenshot example illustrating this privacy concern).

Poor guy was so concerned about his banking info that he couldn’t photoshop it out of the screenshot. Maybe he trusts Sullivan more than Google?

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