Google’s Chrome: the new privacy pariah

Internet privacy is not a new talking point, but occasionally something happens to reinvigorate the furore it inspires. By now you must have heard of Chrome, Google’s champion of user-friendliness and the browser of choice for the next generation of internet users. But bloggers are burning the midnight oil vilifying Chrome’s privacy policy.

In order to give its users search suggestions when they type into the address bar, Chrome records keystrokes. Google’s critics vehemently point out that this is very close to spyware behaviour.

Google responded to the barrage of bile by posting an entry on its official blog stressing the benign use of the captured data, but they failed to address the source of the concern – the unsolicited grabbing of information.

People are worried about privacy. The average internet user knows little about anti-malware, firewall and antivirus products, but they do know the consequences of falling foul of the web’s privacy traps.

Dr Guy Bunker, Distinguished Engineer with internet security specialists Symantec, told Business24-7.ae: “Be careful as to what information you put about yourself online, especially on social networking sites. Remember, it only takes a name, address and date of birth to apply for a credit card.” A sobering thought indeed.

While Google reminds us that Chrome only monitors keystrokes when users type into the address bar, or “Omnibar”, the very fact that they record input at all is deeply disturbing to many, especially when they consider Google’s plans for Chrome to one day replace Windows operating systems.

And the recording of keystrokes is not the only thing worrying the critics. Cookies, an age-old player in the data-privacy drama, also make an appearance. Cookies are unique pieces of data stored on your hard disk. They are given out by websites that want to be able to, among other things, identify you as a specific user when you return to their pages. The privacy concern arises because these seemingly innocuous nuggets remain on your hard drive and can be broken down by malicious parties and analysed. Dr Bunker says: “One way to reduce the impact of Google is to remove the cookies it installs.” Good advice, but many users do not know how to do this, or to turn off other troublesome features in Chrome.

Google is no stranger to the privacy-pariah spotlight. For years they have fallen foul of web commentators who have slammed their practice of storing user search data for up to two years. This outcry culminated in Privacy International’s 2007 decision to rank the search giant bottom in a survey of web entities’ privacy policies. Google insisted that “storing data like IP addresses… is crucial to [improve] search quality, security, fight fraud and reduce spam”.

But this reasoning rings hollow. In the end, Google has a wealth of information about you. And the question will always be, what are they going to do with it?