Comments on: This is Off the Record: Google Scares Me

By: Markus

Markus — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 18:07:15 +0000

Not indexing for displaying in search, but they still have the data on their servers – at any time they can start using that for “ad targeting” and anything else they want.

By: Stephan Beal

Stephan Beal — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 10:21:05 +0000

It’s not about indexing, it’s about saving the chat. If you’re on the record, the chat is stored in your mailbox like any other message. Try it and see.

By: Markus

Markus — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 17:00:29 +0000

Plus the “go off the record” phrase itself makes it sound like you’re being interrogated or interviewed by a reporter, which just makes me feel odd in the context of IM.

By: Markus

Markus — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 16:45:25 +0000

The issue here is more about Google storing everything they can about you. Yes you could disable logging, but 90% of the people will just go with default settings and are probably not fully aware of just how much information about themselves Google is logging – and what the implications of that are.

If you’ve ever spent time looking at the leaked AOL logs, you’ll get a real sense of just how much personal information you divulge through your searches, without even realizing. And that’s just searches.

I feel a lot more comfortable with Trillian’s built in history – it’s stored on my hard drive and is for my personal use. It’s not somewhere on Google’s servers sharing the same account name as everything else that Google has on me.

By: david

david — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 16:34:41 +0000

Are you retarded?

These days almost ever IM client logs conversations. Its an incredibly useful feature. I go through logs to find something almost every single day.

Off the record disables logging for that conversation. I’m sure if you wanted to, you could disable logging completely.

Why is that so hard to understand?

By: Markus

Markus — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:49:01 +0000

It’s a little program called “Spacemonger” – it gives you a visual representation of what’s taking up the most space on your hard drive – and it includes system files and everything else (for example 2Gb that’s in your uninstalled Google desktop folder).

By: pratt

pratt — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:40:08 +0000

“Go off the record” is a really scary feature. I hate the idea that they log *everything* I say even if I say not to. And who is to say that they really don’t log it? Maybe it is just there to make you feel better.

Anyways, what program were you using to hunt down those large files? I’d be interested in giving it a go. You can email it to me if you don’t want to post a link. Thanks!