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May 5, 2005

The Google Web Accelerator S#@! Storm

Interesting read over on Something Awful, particularly this bit:

Well here's the problem, folks: everything you view is now owned by Google. Do you read email? Well now Google reads your email, and now the entire world can read your email. Do you use private messages through a website? Well they aren't private any more; now anybody using Google's Web Accelerator can read them. Every single page you read, every single website you visit, every single cookie you use, every single thing you do on the Internet is now owned by Google and is viewable to anybody using their program. I hope you're completely comfortable with the entire world being able to see every single webpage you read and every single website you visit, because thanks to Google, it's now happening. Check out their privacy policy if you don't believe me.

If true, this is very bad news. But I'm not sure it's entirely the case. The next few days will reveal a lot more. In the meantime, Fantomaster has posted some very nice .htaccess code to keep Google Web Accelerator (GWA) off your site. WebMasterWorld has already banned GWA from their site, albeit with slightly different code than Fantomasters.

A few other relevant links:

Graywolf's take.
The Coming Out of a Datascraper Spook.
ThreadWatch.
Some interesting points raised in the Google Labs - Web Accelerator forum.

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