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Google Chrome Users Beware

September 3rd, 2008 Posted in Internet     

UPDATE: Google Chrome has modified their EULA !!

Google Chrome

Google Chrome

Google Chrome is a new web browser, competing with Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, etc. I will admit, that I downloaded Google Chrome and gave it a test run; however, USERS BEWARE. I will agree that it is much faster than both Internet Explorer and Firefox, but does have increased speed make up for waiving the right to content you post and publish?

As an IT Professional, I try to evaluate products on multiple levels. When reading the Google Chrome EULA, I was SHOCKED. Posting anything via Google Chrome gives Google the right to your content. Why is this bad, well for the blogging community, a bloggers content is what makes a site worth visiting and unique; if bloggers start to post pages using Google Chrome, they no longer have a unique post…..it becomes the property of Google as well. Below is the portion of the EULA that concerns me:

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. By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services. This license 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.

11.2 You agree that this license includes a right for Google to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals with whom Google has relationships for the provision of syndicated services, and to use such Content in connection with the provision of those services.

11.3 You understand that Google, in performing the required technical steps to provide the Services to our users, may (a) transmit or distribute your Content over various public networks and in various media; and (b) make such changes to your Content as are necessary to conform and adapt that Content to the technical requirements of connecting networks, devices, services or media. You agree that this license shall permit Google to take these actions.

11.4 You confirm and warrant to Google that you have all the rights, power and authority necessary to grant the above license.

I urge you to think carefully about using Google Chrome, especially to post. For the time being, I will limit my Google Chrome activity to casual web browsing for further testing. As much as I love using Google products, Firefox is still the browser of my choice.

  1. 28 Responses to “Google Chrome Users Beware”

  2. By Wayne on Sep 3, 2008

    Umm…wow! Nice find, scary indeed. I’ll need to investigate this further. Thanks for bringing this to everyones attention!

  3. By Tink on Sep 3, 2008

    Can they really do that? Wow, thanks for warning! I like Chrome a lot and I just tested it by posting to my blog… I won’t do that again for the time-being!

  4. By pusa on Sep 4, 2008

    wow thanks for sharing this, i am so happy when i downloaded chrome last night because of its no frills design and is really faster than IE or firefox. i was about to blog and urge people to use chrome, maybe i’ll still blog about it but refer to this post re the warning

  5. By pusa on Sep 4, 2008

    hmmm i’ve check the EUL’s page and it only contains section 11 and 11.1 only, maybe they changed the agreement already

    “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.

  6. By Sire on Sep 4, 2008

    They’ve done a back flip, it’s now stated as;
    “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.”

  7. By Sire on Sep 4, 2008

    I did a post on the subject and I thank you for supplying the material. I linked back to this post to give a bit of linkluv. The post is on my BS Blog

  8. By Nihar on Sep 5, 2008

    hmm… I didn’t know this…

    I have installed it but not using it as i am habituated with firefox and maxthon browsers.

  9. By Raquel on Sep 5, 2008

    wow, thank you for this information bro. About 2 days ago, I started using the chrome. Yeah, you are right, it’s faster and easy to use. But as what you have said here, I think it’s not good. How about those blogger who enter in paid blogging, I’m sure they don’t have any chances of having a PR.

  10. By Mar Matthias Darin on Sep 5, 2008

    I guess this saves the police time on getting a search warrent. All they have to do is go thumbscrew Google…

  11. By Austin Girl on Sep 8, 2008

    Not a kosher policy. I won’t use Google Chrome. Thanks for the warning!

  12. By the success on Sep 9, 2008

    Nice post
    and thanks to add comment in my blog
    success for you

  13. By liza on Sep 10, 2008

    thanks for sharing about google chrome. i will have to tell hubby about it so we can download it.

    cheers

  14. By Dorothy Stahlnecker on Sep 10, 2008

    Wow, this is scary please remember to share this with David in case I forget…well written, I could understand….We have a hard enough time with our stuff on the net…now this…..

    Dorothy from grammology
    http://www.grammology.com

  15. By USB Flash Device TechNews on Sep 10, 2008

    What you shared about google chrome is a good point in case. Glad that you raise this and I think google may be re-considering an amendments to the terms stipulated in point 11.X

    Chrome is new and they will definitely want as many downloads they can get and such unwarranted conditions will go if chrome is to survive the competition from Forefox or the IE.

    We will see what happens from now.

  16. By fit4all on Sep 11, 2008

    informative!:) but i still working the old one?!:( dont know yet..i’ll try it soon..:)

    thanks!:)

  17. By QuickPWN on Sep 11, 2008

    I think you’re interpreting this wrong. Google may have made a mistake or they meant something else in the TOS. It doesn’t seem like Google to do this with our information. Maybe it’s in there so they can serve Google Ads in Google Chrome.

  18. By Philip on Sep 13, 2008

    I agree with QuickPWN above. This doesn’t seem like something Google would do. Also, from some of the comments above, it sounds like they may have already re-worded the EULA. Even if they didn’t, I doubt a blanket clause like this would hold up in court, especially if you copyright your stuff with a creative commons license (USA) or something similar.

  19. By James on Sep 13, 2008

    I’m pretty sure you didn’t accidentally read it, more like read from us or the giz. In case you would like to deny it, ill send you a snapshot of our ip logs for that day. Cheers!

  20. By beau71 on Sep 13, 2008

    Please feel free to provide your IP logs and you will realize that I didn’t read it from you. I receive e-mail’s from the DailyDave listserve, and in the threads for that day discussed flaws in Chrome. That is what sparked my curiosity in Chrome and me being skeptical about Google’s information collecting is what brought me to reading the bullets of the EULA. I didn’t read it verbatim, I just went through the headings of each section. So please send me a snapshot of your IP Logs.

  21. By The World's Worst Stock Picker on Sep 13, 2008

    Scary. I won’t use google chrome to post on my blog.

  22. By Schanzerx on Sep 13, 2008

    I haven’t installed Chrome, yet. I got my problems with this “beta” version right from the start. Google Chrome is kinda creepy…Big Google is watching you!

  23. By Some Backup on Sep 15, 2008

    That seems rather extreme. Do any of the other browsers have this in?

  24. By Web Money on Sep 15, 2008

    I have not downloaded chrome yet either. I may not any time soon. Google already seems to have a hand in everything else I do on the web, so for now I am sticking with firefox. Interesting post enjoyed reading. I wrote a post a while back about legal issues and privacy:

    http://www.usapresidentmccain.com/2008/05/privacy-thing-of-past.html

    Blake

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