Google Toolbar Followed Web Movements, Even When Disabled
It was a bug that impacted a rather small set of Google users, but it was unnerving nonetheless to learn that Google Toolbar in some configurations reported your movements back to the GOOGS mother ship -- even when you told it not to.
The news comes from Harvard Business School professor Ben Edelman, and has been acknowledged (and fixed yesterday) by Google.
The bug affected IE 8 users who activated Google Toolbar's enhanced features Sidewiki and PageRank, according to Edelman. The features transmitted to Google the full URL of every page-view. Fair enough; users accepted that result when they turned on the features in the first place. The problem came for those who attempted to disable this data exchange.
"Even when users specifically instruct that the Google Toolbar be "disable[d]", and even when the Google Toolbar seems to be disabled (e.g., because it disappears from view), Google Toolbar continues tracking users' browsing," wrote Edelman in a report issued Tuesday.
Google acknowledged the flaw, said it affected relatively few people, and has moved to fix the problem. According to a Google response:
"To be clear, this is only an issue until a user restarts the browser, and it only affects the currently open tabs for a small number of users. Specifically it affects those using Google Toolbar versions 6.3.911.1819 through 6.4.1311.42 in Internet Explorer, with enhanced features enabled, who chose to disable Toolbar without uninstalling it. Once the user restarts the browser, the issue is no longer present. A fix that doesn't require a browser restart is now available on www.google.com/toolbar and in an automatic update to Google Toolbar that we are starting (Wednesday)."Why do we care about this minor software bug here in a blog about management practices? Because the flaw clearly contradicts the search company's own policy that states that after disabling PageRank and Sidewiki, these features would "no longer send URL information back to Google."
Did Google's response after violating its own privacy policy go far enough? Do users need more of an explanation of how this bug developed or how long the company knew it was an issue? Should Google, as Edelman says, delete any browsing information from its servers that has been collected during "nonconsensual data collection."
How would you handle this situation?
(Edelman, who has criticized the company for various practices over the years, discloses he has consulted for the search company's competitors and litigated against the company on behalf of plaintiffs. "But I write on my own -- not at the suggestion or request of any client, without approval or payment from any client.")