Suspicions Regarding Google Chrome

There's been a lot of comments flying fast and furious across the tubes regarding Google's newly released internet browser, Chrome.

When I heard about it I was intrigued, but cautious. Given their history of an extensive go-getter approach to data mining, the idea of using a browser hand-handcrafted by them set the conspiracy theorist Big Brother alarms off in my brain. So, after checking out the download page, I decided to hold off and see if any chatter came out in the following days.

I was not to be disappointed.

I'd been foolishly concerned about some spectral-keystroke-capturing-spying... thing. I don't know, my concerns were vague and incoherent, but I was more preoccupied about being monitored by google than what's come out so far, that google's license agreement was basically hand tailored to seize rights to any creative/ intellectual properties users dealt with or uploaded in the course of browsing the internet with their app. The exact wording in the EULA read:

11. Content licence from you

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights that you already hold in Content that you submit, post or display on or through the Services. By submitting, posting or displaying the content, you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive licence to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content that you submit, post or display on or through the Services. This licence is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the Services and may be revoked for certain Services as defined in the Additional Terms of those Services.

After overwhelming outcry from users Google quickly retracted the offending language for the following:

11. Content license from you

11.1 You retain copyright and any other rights you already hold in Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services.

There are many holding the opinion that this may have been an oversight, or that this is simply google's standard EULA for all of its programs. My opinion is that a company like Google does not make idle mistakes, certainly not in legal documentation. However, I think their response that this was their usual EULA and that it hadn't occurred to them to change it may have been true. Nonetheless, this instance should draw to everyone's attention that extremely clear, no-nonsense wording in Google's license agreement. This agreement applies to almost every program google oversees. So often we scroll through a EULA without carefully looking it over, it's important to remember to take a careful look at what rights you're keeping/ throwing out the window. Despite the fact that they've changed their wording to something slightly less ambiguous, I won't be using Chrome anytime soon.

In today's age of blogs, tweets, vlogs, p2p, online word processing and email it is essential to maintain the rights to your intellectual property as well as you can. Furthermore, even if intellectual property isn't an interest of yours, at least know that if someone else owns what you're doing, they can also see what you're doing.

It's easy for people to know what you're doing online. Don't make it easier.