Ben Edelman is a privacy / security expert from Harvard University. He is well known and respected in the security community. He examined the Google Toolbar and has some concerns:
"... Consider a user who changes her mind about Enhanced Features but wishes to keep Google Toolbar in its basic mode. How exactly can she do so? Browsing the Google Toolbar's entire Options screen, I found no option to disable Enhanced Features. Indeed, Enhanced Features are easily enabled with a single click, during installation (as shown above) or thereafter. But disabling Enhanced Features seems to require uninstalling Google Toolbar altogether, and in any event disabling Enhanced Features certainly lacks any comparably-quick command.
I'm reminded of The Eagles' Hotel California: "you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave." And of course, as discussed above, a user who chooses the X button or Manage Add-Ons, will naturally believe the Google Toolbar is disabled, when in fact it continues transmissions unabated."
Ben Edelman goes through a detailed examination of how data are being transmitted back to Google. This is tracking the user's activities. As a result of this review, Edelman noted that he "uninstalled Google Toolbar from all my PCs. I encourage others to do the same".
I have uninstalled the Google Toolbar. And I will miss the convenience of the toolbar but the tracking is disappointing. Google doesn't need a record of my internet activities on its servers.
Catherine Forsythe
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Erica K
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Salon.com
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