Editing Google Desktop (section)

==Criticisms==

===Security===
In February 2007, Yair Amit, of [[Watchfire]], found a series of vulnerabilities<ref>[http://www.owasp.org/images/a/a1/OWASP_IL_7_Overtaking_Google_Desktop.pdf Overtaking Google Desktop (alternative link)]</ref> in Google Desktop that could allow a malicious individual to achieve not only remote, persistent access to sensitive data, but in some cases full system control as well. The significant impact and the ease of exploitation forced Google to change some of Google Desktop's logic in Google Desktop version 5.

===Privacy===
{{see also|Criticism of Google#Privacy}}
Many [[privacy]] and [[civil liberties]] groups such as the [[Electronic Frontier Foundation]] (EFF) have concerns that personal information on people's computers could readily be copied from users' [[hard drive]]s.<ref name=EFF/>

Google Desktop version 3 contains certain features that raise serious security and privacy concerns. Specifically, the ''share across computers'' feature, which introduces the ability to search content from desktop to desktop, greatly increases the risk to users' privacy.  If Google Desktop V.3 is set to allow ''Search Across Computers'', files on an indexed computer are copied to Google's servers. The potential for information stored on their computers to be accessed by others if they enable this feature of Google Desktop v. 3 on their computers should be seriously considered. The EFF advises against using this feature.<ref name=EFF>{{citation | url = https://www.eff.org/press/archives/2006/02/09 | title = Press Release | date = 2006-02-09 | publisher = Electronic Frontier Foundation}}</ref>  Also, those who have confidential data on their work or home computers should not enable this feature. There are privacy laws and company policies that could be violated through the installation of this feature, specifically, [[California Senate Bill 1386 (2002)|SB 1386]], [[Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act|HIPAA]], [[FERPA]], [[GLBA]] and [[Sarbanes-Oxley]].<ref>{{citation | url = http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/internet/0,39044246,39311126,00.htm | title = More worries about Google Desktop 3 | publisher = ZDNet | place = Asia | access-date = 2006-02-24 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100311023409/http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/internet/0,39044246,39311126,00.htm | archive-date = 2010-03-11 | url-status = dead }}</ref>

Other more far reaching concerns arise around the packaging and end user license agreement – specifically the level of intrusion on the local machine and the disclaimers that users implicitly agree to future changes in the license agreement without actually being able to see them immediately.<ref>{{citation | chapter-url = http://rixstep.com/2/20070621,00.shtml | title = Google Desktop Tracked | chapter = Terms of Service (Welcome to Google) | publisher = Rix Step}}</ref><ref>{{citation | chapter-url = http://rixstep.com/2/20070621,05.shtml | title = Google Desktop Tracked | chapter = The Aftermath | publisher = Rix Step}}</ref>

===Outlook indexing===
There had been some issues with [[Microsoft Outlook]] indexing.<ref>{{citation | url = http://desktop.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=11602 | title = Desktop | chapter = Outlook Index and Search}}</ref>  Deleted email listings were not removed and required re-installing Google Desktop for any new archived mail to be listed. Several versions have been released to patch the Outlook indexing.<ref>{{citation | url = http://desktop.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=known_issues.cs | title = Desktop | chapter = Latest Known Issues}}</ref>

During the first half of 2009, a large number of Google Desktop users reported that the product stopped indexing suddenly, when the index file reached approximately 4GB in size.  A full uninstall (including manually deleting the indexes) and then reinstall would fix the problem temporarily, but the problem would recur when the index file reached 4GB again.  The problem has been resolved as of Google Desktop Search version 5.9.<ref>{{citation | url = https://groups.google.com/group/Google-Desktop_Something-Broken/t/806074cca88094f6?hl=en | title = Desktop | chapter = Something broken}}</ref>  Currently, Google Desktop does not index email or contacts in Outlook 2010.

===Thunderbird indexing===
By default, Google Desktop does not index email in Thunderbird 3.<ref>{{cite web |title=Cannot open Thunderbird 3 emails from Google Desktop Search |work=Google Desktop Help (Windows) |publisher=[[Google Groups]] |date=2010-01-15 |url= https://groups.google.com/group/google-desktop_something-broken/browse_thread/thread/3c5cdb02445d0cc9?hl=en-GB |archive-url= http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20140907080608/http://groups.google.com/group/google-desktop_something-broken/browse_thread/thread/3c5cdb02445d0cc9?hl=en-GB |url-status= dead |archive-date= 2014-09-07 |access-date=2014-01-12}}</ref>