I have wondered when something like this would come home to roost on the Google front. After all, anything with the kind of red carpet access given to it as we see with the Google Desktop is just asking for trouble.

Sure enough, the likely to happen has, well, happened. And even with Google patching the flaw, I think that it had an opportunity to see what it is really like to live in a world where exploits can honestly ruin your day.

Now for the real question: does anyone honestly use Google Desktop? With Vista’s advanced search features (same with the Mac) and Linux offering Beagle desktop search, why would anyone expose themselves like this? Maybe some people are still using this thing out of ignorance? Speaking for myself, I would ban this from my office as anything that is indexing your system with a TOS like what Google is pushing is just asking for problems. Then again, that’s just my opinion.

Tags: google desktop, exploit, security, flaw, tos