May 26, 2006

Googly bundles with Dell despite privacy fears

by Brian Turner

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Google

Google and Dell have secured a deal, to have bundled Google software bundled on new Dell PC’s.

The deal especially focuses on the installation of Google Desktop Search on Dell PCs, with associated software, and the Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer already sintalled.

The deal also involves a co-branded homepage for both companies on the PC’s.

While the deal is seen as an attempt by Google to more directly challenge Microsoft, it also continues to underline privacy concerns.

Google is already accused of not taking user privacy seriously enough, with Google purposefully harvesting and analysing personal data for use between it’s different product areas.

While other big ISP’s - such as Yahoo! and Microsoft - have also been accused of not taking privacy seriously enough, the new software distribution deal with Dell can only increase those concerns so far as Google is concerned.

Additionally, desktop software in general has already been flagged as a security risk, due to the ease in which hackers could employ desktop search to more easily find personal information, such as passwords and banking information.

While it’s fair to say that privacy and security concerns go beyond Google, it remains an issue of acute concern that big internet ISP’s are still aggressively pushing for collecting user-data, without any corresponding checks to protect user privacy being applied, on either side of the Atlantic.

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Story link: Googly bundles with Dell despite privacy fears

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