Its been all over the news...  

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-20005668-265.html

Windows calls home as well. Yet you say Google is more evil?

I don't think Google is hacking peoples PC files to attain data on people. If they were there would be multiple lawsuits over it and it would have made the national news by now.

However I do use Gmail and have never had any issues. I don't use the Google toolbar or browser.

As for your link Google took data from unsecured wifi connections. So I pose the question again: If your connection is secure are you are not using Google programs how is Google getting data from you?

The one thing you don't wanna do with me, kona, when I'm ranting about Google is take me too seriously.  It's true that I neither like or trust Google, but 99% of what I say about them is tongue-in-cheek, just for the heck of it.

In the article it says that many states are considering lawsuits. Even though they mysteriously haven't. I am sure google dished a little cash out to grease the wheels.  Also the first place I heard of this was on CNN.  I also don't use IE  or Yahoo either (i use firefox). But I'm sure firefox does some stuff I don't know about.  Really the whole digital world is lacking in personal protection legislation.

I agree with that statement. I just hope things get better. As far as Google collecting data I wonder what's going to happen with that. Perhaps I will hear of lawsuits in the news. More likely Google will just settle out of court.

Curiously I have never had any issues with Gmail.

Starkers - we have had our arguments. I know your opinion on the matter my friend. 

We did get a bit side tracked, but my original post was on the Google tool bar.  Prior to running into this malady, I just did not like ANY toolbar, and the problem was discovered with the Google toolbar.  So I am not letting Yahoo, AO-Hell or any of the others off the hook in the tool bar department.  Cap'n Starkers does not like Google, and given the recent revelations about them, I am not keen on them either (WiFi Snooping, Privacy Issues, etc.)

You are absolutely correct about the snooping.  But I would like to be able to trust a reputable company to not snoop.  However, finding a reputable one that deals with information is the Achilles heel in this age of information.

A couple of years ago, that would have been a pie crust promise.  But Google, while being the bull in the china shop, is a victim of its own success, so other alternatives are emerging.  Microsoft did an excellent job with Bing and in some ways it is far superior to Google (to name 2 - Phone number reverse lookup and Controversial topics).

Ah, Come on Cap'n Starkers!  Do not hold back.  Tell us how you REALLY feel about Google.

If you have tunnel vision and the US is your only world, you would just now be starting to hear about Google Antics.  However if you live on planet earth and realize there are over 100 countries, then you would be hearing about the couple dozen who have already started legal proceedings against them, including Germany, France, The Netherlands, Austria, Italy, and Australia (not including the totalitarian ones).

National News?  Try getting your news from national sites.  it has been all over the UK papers, Drudge, and others.

GMAIL is getting to be as ubiquitous as Google.  Did you know that Google offers a service to all institutions of higher learning that gives all students a free gmail account (that has no ads in it) for the duration of their studentness?  Sounds like a sweet deal - and it is for the colleges who no longer have to worry about capacity and maintenance (they do have to add and subtract the students as they enter and leave) of Student email.  Many colleges have taken them up on it (including my employer).

Given all their other antics, I am just waiting for the other shoe to drop.  The sword of the information age is 2 sided.  While the ease on which to gain information on you has increased, so has the whistle blowers (and why Google was outed).  We all know about the FaceBook CEO debacle.  Internet Companies cannot keep a secret because like regular brick and mortar establishments, they are comprised of people who have loose lips.

No, kona, we've not had our arguments!! I've hung a few Google taunts out there... and we've had healthy discussions. 

Now are you trying to get me a stint in the sin bin or something???  Like if I were to REALLY let go about how I REALLY feel about Google, with ALL the passion and raw emotion, there'd be several inconprehensible and ranting sentences containing a plethora of four letter expletives and cuss words that are not usually acceptable in mixed company. 

    Nah, not really!

And like how physical institutions leave paper trails, internet companies leave digital fingerprints... and being Google's digital fingerprints are everywhere, there's a very good chance that some of these international lawsuits against it will succeed.

That is a very good way of putting it.  Yes, the digital fingerprints of Google are in the pie.

Yes, and if Google thinks it can erase them all they've got another thing coming.  They've had their fingers in far too many pies to rub 'em all out, and even using so-called drive cleaners doesn't necessarily ensure they've covered their tracks.  I was watching a tech show on TV where a PC security expert said that he could retrieve data from a drive that had been wiped with the Guttman 17 pass process.  He said that it is time consuming and expensive.... but money would be no object in top level investigations, would it?

Oh I'd love to be a fly on he wall at Google HQ sometimes... especially when their bots trawl up threads such as this (with the Google name in the title and throughout) and they're reading all the denigrating and potentially harmful (to them) crap people say about them.  Like now I wonder if they're running around like chooks with their heads cut off, trying to figure out who this bloke is that I saw on TV... and can they buy him off... and a what price... does he have a protoge` or three waiting in the wings??? 

It is always a question of money.  For the normal user, using an off the shelf drive cleaner is enough since no one is going to spend the money for so little gain.  however, for the Bill Gates, Eric Schmidts and Steve jobs, I doubt they let their hard drives leave their homes.  At least not in one piece.  in this business (Technology Security) the only way to ensure data is not recoverable is to destroy the medium.

You just love to egg them on.

I have no ads in my Gmail account. For me Gmail is better at email than my MSN account.