posted 09-04-2008 12:03 AM                    

quote: Mitchell Dvoskin

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Any Google spyware code buried in it?

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posted 09-04-2008 02:15 AM                    

quote:

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"Google backs down over browser amid privacy concerns

Mex Cooper
September 4, 2008 - 12:21PM

Google has made an embarrassing backdown after it was revealed the company would have rights to any information entered into websites by people using its new internet browser.

A day after the Google Chrome browser was released, a controversial clause in its "End User License Agreement" (EULA) has been removed following concerns it breached people's privacy and copyright.

Users who downloaded the free browser yesterday were asked to agree to a clause that gave Google a "perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive licence to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly, perform, publicly display and distribute" any information they typed into a website.

Part of the same clause allowed Google to share the information with "other companies, organisations or individuals with whom Google has relationships".

David Vaile, executive director of the cyberspace law and policy centre at the University of NSW, described the clause as "unprecedented" with "massive privacy and copyright implications".

"On the face of it, this does give Google a licence to do almost anything they want with content you 'submit, post or display' through the browser," Mr Vaile said.

The clause has now been changed to allow users to retain their copyright over information.

Senior product counsel for Google Chrome, Rebecca Ward, said in a statement that the company used the same set of legal terms for all its products to "keep things simple for our users".

"Sometimes, as in the case of Google Chrome, this means that the legal terms for a specific product may include terms that don't apply well to the use of that product," she said.

She said Google had moved quickly to respond to users' feedback and make changes to the agreement that would apply retroactively to people who had already downloaded Chrome.

Mr Vaile slammed Google for asking users to agree to a "nonsensical licence" that didn't actually apply to Chrome.

"It is very sloppy legal work if it was not Google's intention to gain such rights from users, and borders on treating users and their legal advisers with contempt," Mr Vaile said.

Monash University law lecturer Rebecca Giblin said buzz about the clause had spread over the internet within an hour of the browser's release.

She said Google's backdown was "clearly in response to public opinion".

"I think the people who drafted the agreement were doing the best to protect the company's interests without thinking about the users' interests," she said.

So the users stood up for their own rights and made it clear to Google that the wide-reaching clause was not acceptable."

"From the users' perspective, the fact that Google immediately backed down is a great outcome."

Dr Giblin said the clause would have given Google rights to any information typed by a person into a website while using Chrome, including bank details, passwords and emails.

"It gave Google the right to that content, to display it elsewhere, display it to other people, modify or adapt it. That's why the clause was so controversial," she said.

She said many internet users inherently trusted Google, whose unofficial company motto is 'do no evil', despite privacy concerns raised about some of its other products including Street View.

"The thing is Google is at heart an advertising business. It does not have a focus on security like a bank does. So even if you trust Google with your secrets there is no guarantee that information will not come out in other ways," she said.

Dr Giblin said Google's core business was to gather information that could be used to target advertising to internet users, which had been one of the company's motivations to release Chrome.

"Everything you've typed into a browser (could be filtered) through by Google to decide what sort of products to target at you, it raises significant privacy concerns," she said.

"Most Google services are paid for by advertising, it is their core business, and the better they know their users, the better they can target advertising to them."

She said she was not surprised Google had removed the clause as it placed a high value on its reputation as a "good company".

"Every time a controversy like this arises it puts another chink in their armour," she said.

Google has touted Chrome as a faster, more user-friendly and safer internet browser than Microsoft's dominant Internet Explorer.

A Google Australia spokesman said the company took users' privacy "very seriously" and information shared with Google through Chrome was "similar to the information that is shared when you're using a different browser and search on Google".

Google has released a YouTube video which explains features on Chrome that can be used to turn off functions that store users' information, including cookies, records of downloads and web history.

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posted 09-04-2008 10:05 AM                    

quote: Monte L Fullmer

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This browser also uses the same engines as does FF/Netscape, thus just another duplicate Mozilla browser - just more fancy bells and whistles that Google is known for.

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