Chrome: Google's biggest threat to your privacy

It's superior javascript

It's superior javascript engine isn't going to have much currency amongst the general public, and the techies don't get the plugin bells and whistles so _who_ exactly is the market?

Well, Chrome is GPLed and Iron is privacy

Feel free to have a look at http://goit-postal.blogspot.com/2008/12/google-chrome-without-data-sniffing.html - a browser fork named Iron is out there and it has no “data features” included… ;-)

spy eye

It gets more intense when you look at their logo. Right to the point.

Good writeup. I agree with

Good writeup. I agree with chrome being sleek. I did an evaluation of this so called "incognito mode," and the results were impressive. I even tried it with my pal a forensics expert who tried to dig up data. We couldn’t find any trace on the hard drive. Click my name to read details of the study.

Get a grip

Yup, your right. Same as FFox google bar.

Oh SNAP - what about the fact that FFox and other browsers use google to verify sites. What does that mean - more or less every single site you look at google knows about through FFox. IE uses MSN.

Forget about the box, you're fine. There are too many idiots out there who will diffuse the threat (2 billion requests later you think someone is fishing our bank account out at google?)

Read the Google privacy policy - that is scary. It is only a matter of time before they release your browsing habits as public info.

The ISP's also began tracking your habits online via your IP and packets for targeted advertising - pretty cool huh? Your 5 year old will get porn now because of your "private" surfing.

One solution, GULP! - Federal regulation of the retention of search and private information. Google RIGHT NOW can change who wins the election. Who is looking out for that?

You people only know that half of it. In my work I have proof that google is involved in a number of illegal activity. Do I care? Not really.

There is so much information coming and going your are, once again, just a blip.

As evil as google IS,they produce better products than anyone else in the IT field. All I want is formal Federal regulation of the data they trade. The fed's slow them down and allow for competition.

cool technology, usability issues

I think the outstanding features of Chrome are, by far, sandboxing and V8.

I'm O.K. with search suggestions, (after all, the search text goes to Google anyhow, no?), BUT I absolutely agree auto-complete based on personal data like history or bookmarks is a serious privacy concern, especially on shared or workplace computers.

On an intranet with convenient redirects, "search from address bar" can be annoying, so I prefer to disable it. Basically, I don't really like the Omnibox's ambiguous ("multiguous"?) functionality, much less the privacy implications.

(If you really want what's basically a text console, then implement some kind of script to make explicit requests: Maybe something like "http//blahblahblah.com", "http//myredirect", "google//my search terms", "googlelucky//my search terms", "yahoo//my search terms", etc.)

Just can't understand why browsers like Chrome and FF ship with such weak cookie control. I prefer to explicitly block or allow cookies at the domain level, (which of course raises some privacy issues of its own). Oddly, cookie management is one thing IE does right: FF still needs an add-on like "CS Lite", tho' looser handling of session cookies in FF is also worthwhile, methinks.

Incognito Chrome seems like a better, cleaner starting point than default Chrome. (Isn't it kind of crazy that there's no way to turn off history in default Chrome? Or am I missing something?) There's probably an easy way to default to Incognito(?) but how hard would it be to selectively modify Incognito to allow persistent cookies needed for desired functionality?

Oh my god

I'm so glad I read this! Now I know to stop typing my passwords, SSN, and naughty search terms into the Omni bar! Someone at Google might see them and think "oooooooh someone typed that!!!"

Are you serious!

You are telling me that you are afraid that google knows the first few letters of things that you are searching for?

Every time you submit ANY URL or SEARCH... you are sending data to some computer other than your own. How do you expect them to give you results, if they don't know what you are searching for?

It is not like they are watching the web-pages data, or what you type in note-pad.

You give more personal information to the e-mail controllers that you use. Worse than what you search for, you tell them your names, passwords, account info... It is encrypted, but they hold the key. Otherwise they can't send it to the recipient. (Unless you PGP everything.)

Seriously, they have no idea who 121.43.115.85 is. That is the IP they see... thousands of users can have that same IP, there is nothing that signifies that IP, with YOU, except the time-stamp, and your ISP, who can only confirm the account holder. (If you are in a school or business, the IP is shared, and NOTHING signifies any individual computer, that can be seen past the IP. Your HOST manages who sent what, and what you get.)

Stop crying wolf, and stop using it if you don't like it. The point is... You are searching/looking for something OUTSIDE when you type plain-text in that box. What significance does hitting "Enter" have to do with the relevance of the situation? How often are you typing "Your Name, Your SSN, Your CC Number" for a web-address or for a search, by accident?

Possibly the same amount of times that you hit "Enter" by accident, after typing that info. (Which is still NEVER. And if it was often, you are your own security risk for not paying attention. That info just got boradcast to every search engine as a search-q, and sent to thousands of DNS servers that are trying to find that website, if you were not in a search box. Those "Error-logs", are usually public, and unsecure, and indexable.)

Yes, I am sure google personally goes through billions of keystrokes of data per day, to find out what millions of searchers are typeing. There are limits, and most limits to indexing are 3-8 letters. What personal data do you have, that is that important, and is only 3-8 letters long. I hope not your passwords!