I'm going to stop doing a privacy news watch for now as I'm not updating it as much as I should. This tells me that I don't have enough passion about the subject as I thought I did. Privacy is an issue in todays' world that will only be on the rise. I'm concerned about where privacy online is going but I think there are sources that might have the interest that goes beyond my casual frustration here. My other blogs are still very active and those involved in online marketing and search news seem to hold my interest more. Thanks.

Desktop search will continue to be and up and coming technology but Mozilla might have the best take on it from the standpoint of privacy, they will let you choose the technology. I think that's the best way to handle the pitfalls of desktop privacy. According to this article in Network World Fusion, Mozilla may not only have the browser as part of an offering, but a desktop search as well. One of the people quoted states it this way:

Regarding integration with desktop search tools, the idea would be to offer Firefox users a choice of third-party tools for searching information stored on their PCs...There are a variety of companies that are working on that technology and we may just try and identify a way for Firefox to plug into a variety of desktop search engines and enable users to pick and choose.

Mozilla recently released Firefox 1.0 and has been gaining marketshare on Microsoft. There might be an estimated 12% of the browser market now using Firefox. As an open source software project, Firefox has been quite a success. It's a true phoenix. Out of the ashes of the browser war between Netscape and Microsoft, comes Firefox and bites Microsoft in the rear end. I would guess that the third party desktop search companies are looking hotly to court Firefox because that will help them get a springboard into a growing adoption in the browser market. Nothing could be better for them in this all out battle over desktop search.

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I found this article about the problem with slow computer performance interesting. How many times do people blame their problem on the PC, the OS or hardware? It sounds like these days that many of the problems with crawling computers can be traced to spyware. It makes sense. I have so many people I've talked to about poor performance and after you get all the way optimizing everything, it comes down to spyware. This stuff is everywhere trying to get information about us day and night. When you download from a suspicious source, when you do file swapping, you are inviting spyware to come on board your PC.

Spyware is becoming more and more of a problem because in some ways, not all, people have allowed it when the accept some sort of agreement which might say something about it. When you install, this spyware thing can take over with your permission. So when finding out who is the problem, you may want to blame others, but you may have to blame yourself for the problem! Be careful people!

Here is an article talking about a company that they believe to be doing some redirection without the person acting on it.

This type of problem I've experienced with other types of spyware and not the company they talk about here. This problem of spyware is more of an issue than ever before. If a tiny program can make it way onto your PC, what else can it do besides some relatively benign annoyance? I've actually has a piece of spyware install a toolbar for itself on my machine. Imagine my surprise when I opened my browser one day and found a new toolbar!

Of course I run spyware elimination tools on a regular basis and that keeps my computer pretty clean. I don't see the benefit other than malicious intent to these spyware programs. And once they are found out, no one in their right mind who have anything to do with these companies. So there is no benefit to them, or anyone else unless they get information about you that they shouldn't be getting and then they can sell it to someone else.

I'm wondering if when you buy stolen information is that a crime like buying stolen merchandise from a thief? Are you then part of it and can be prosecuted?

The Google desktop search is finally getting a closer look from people in the media. People are starting to ask the question, is this a little too good. The idea of your computer having a photographic memory sounds nice on it's face, but people are beginning to see there are some shortcomings to that. The idea that no e-mail will ever be truly deleted, that bank transactions with information will show up on historical cached pages. These are the kinds things that could be very bad.

I'm now curious of what the adoption rate for Google Desktop has been. Clearly Google needs to refine the desktop search to do some things and not others. I think they say that you can turn off certain features, but will the average user actually do that? Are there legal ramifications for Google if personal information slips or is retrieved by someone other than the owner of that material?

In my humble opinion, I think Google should come out with a lite version that doesn't scour everything by default. Maybe there should be a web version that only handles web history or an email version and so on. The way it is now is becoming more intrusive than most people probably wanted it to be.

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There was a time when companies repected your privacy because it was the right thing to do. It wasn't a question of business ethics, rather a personal moral conviction. People understood there was information that could be used, but most business people found it repugnant to get down to such an individual level. That's not the way it is anymore. It's been a slow slide to where little by little we believe that any information you acquire about a person can be used to market something. Where did it all begin? Probably with aggressive marketing ideas that intellectually make sense.

I think it began at Radio Shack. I know some of you may be laughing, but it's Radio Shack. Do you remember when you would go into the store and buy an electronic part for 59 cents and they would force, and I mean force you to give them a name and an address. You would ask, "Why do you need that?". They wouldn't always have a good answer, they just said it was part of their sales process, but their catalog would show up in the mail a week or two later. That stunk. There isn't any difference between that and what goes on today, only now it's faster, cheaper and more integrated.

That's where it started for me anyway and I don't like the need to know about everything about me so they can sell something.