I've long made it a practice to open browser preferences to clear web history and dump cookies from machines I've used at conference press rooms and internet cafes in dozens of cities. That drops my web mail passwords and online banking sessions from cache, so I don't have to fret over who might be able to retrieve passwords after I'm gone. I do it automatically now every time I use a public machine.

But now I've got to look for Google Desktop Search before I use a public machine and turn it off while I'm using that machine. Grrrrr! You have to take good with bad I suppose. (Right click icon and choose "Exit")

There's a lot to love about Desktop Search but I simply HATE that others can use it to spy on me. I have no doubt that it will be used by both bad guys for identity theft and by nosey snoops and busy-bodies who will be virtually looking over my shoulder in secret.

I'm sure Desktop Search will be used by parents to monitor instant messaging chats, emails and internet travels by their kids and possibly by spouses to check up on their sweethearts. I'm not at all concerned that anyone will use my home machine and Google Desktop Search to check up on me. (Although I've been startled at phrases that turn up in occasional spam from my Outlook in-box from Google Desktop Search results) I'm more worried that people will use it as a spying tool on public computers.

I've also written before on privacy risks of Google online searches in an article on how to protect yourself from Google Reverse Phone Lookup. You can enter any phone number in search box at Google and see owner of that phone numbers' name, their address and a map to their front door! Google seems to be too powerful for its own good sometimes.

Fortunately there is a phone lookup opt-out method at Google, but databases they draw upon pose a bigger problem. I address additional opt-out methods in article (linked below) but it seems impossible to escape determined snoops.

I'll continue to use Google Desktop Search on my home machine and will continue to love tool for my web centered work online to search client emails, documents and previously visited researched web sites. But now I'll be far more wary - on public machines - of bad guys and of Google Desktop Search. Damn those bad guys!

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