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We deeply respect your privacy and have built Google Desktop with the security of your personal information in mind. To put it plainly:

• Google Desktop does not make your computer's content accessible to Google or anyone else without your explicit permission.

Our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions go into great depth about the specifics of our commitment to your privacy. Below you'll also find answers to some of the key questions you're likely to have. Because Google Desktop is still so new, this document will likely evolve as we receive feedback and suggestions.

Questions and Answers

1. Does Google Desktop share the contents of my computer with anyone?
2. What does Google Desktop do with the information on my computer?
3. How do I prevent items from appearing in Google Desktop results?
4. It looks like I'm going to a website when I do a search. Is my personal data being sent to someone?
5. I see results that include information from my personal files when I do web searches on Google. Does that mean my information is now available online to anyone?
6. What if someone looks at my computer screen and sees my personal search results on Google? How do I protect my privacy in that situation?
7. Does Google collect information about me?
8. Will my use of other Google services be associated with my use of Google Desktop?
9. Is Google Desktop spyware?

1. Does Google Desktop share the contents of my computer with anyone?

No. Your Google Desktop index and copies of your files are currently stored only on your computer. The content is not shared with Google or anyone else without your explicit permission.

2. What does Google Desktop do with the information on my computer?

After a successful installation, Google Desktop creates a searchable index of your email, files, chats and web history that enables you to find the information you're looking for in less than a second. In addition to the index itself, Google Desktop stores copies of the items it finds on your computer's hard drive. This lets you view older versions of files you've changed as well as web pages you've visited, even when you're not connected to the Internet. Your Google Desktop index and copies are currently stored only on your computer at "C:\Documents and Settings\%USERNAME%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Google Desktop".

3. How do I prevent items from appearing in Google Desktop results?

If you want to prevent something from being found by Google Desktop, you can do any or all of the following:

• Remove specific items from Google Desktop results by clicking on the "Remove" link on a results page.
• Prevent specific web pages, files and directories from ever being indexed or copied into Google Desktop by selecting specific items for Google Desktop to ignore in Preferences.
• Pause Google Desktop to stop it from indexing and copying what you view during the pause period by clicking the "Pause Indexing" item in the task tray menu.
• Prevent whole categories of items from being indexed and copied into Google Desktop, including email, chats, different file types, as well as web pages in general or secure (https) web pages in particular. This can be set in Preferences.

Note that deleting an email from your email client does NOT delete its copy from Google Desktop. Nor does deleting a document or spreadsheet remove the stored copy of that document or spreadsheet that Google Desktop has created. This enables you to retrieve copies of things that you may have accidentally changed or deleted. If you want to delete the Google Desktop copy as well, you have to do so from within Google Desktop.

4. It looks like I'm going to a website when I do a search. Is my personal data being sent to someone?

No. What looks like a website is actually a page generated by your computer. The information on this page that is from your computer is not available on the web for others to view.

5. I see results that include information from my personal files when I do web searches on Google. Does that mean my information is now available online to anyone?

No. Your personal information is visible only to you, and only when you do a search from your own computer. When you do a web search on Google, two things happen. A request goes out to the Google computers to do a general web search there. Meanwhile, on your computer, Google Desktop checks its index for items that match the keywords you've entered. When the web results come back to your computer, the Google Desktop program grabs them and adds in the results from its index. All these modifications happen on your own computer, not on the Google computers.

6. What if someone looks at my computer screen and sees my personal search results on Google? How do I protect my privacy in that situation?

We've included ways to protect your information when you're out in public. When doing a web search on Google that includes Google Desktop results on the results page, you can hide the Google Desktop results by clicking on the "Hide" link. This removes Google Desktop results from the results page you're looking at, but any future searches will again include Google Desktop results on their results pages (see details in the user guide). You can permanently prevent Google Desktop items from appearing in the Google web results pages by changing your Desktop Preferences. You can also remove items from the Google Desktop results as noted in question 3.

7. Does Google collect information about me?

Google Desktop will not send any personally identifying information, such as your name or address, to Google without your explicit permission. So that we can continuously improve Google Desktop, the application sends non-personal information about things like the application's performance and reliability. Google Desktop may also send information about the websites you visit to Google in order to enable certain features, such as Personalized News, in Sidebar.

Note: This website information is not personally identifiable; however, you can choose to prevent Desktop from sending this information to Google by disabling Advanced Features in your Desktop Preferences.

8. Will my use of other Google services be associated with my use of Google Desktop?

If you send us non-personal information about your Google Desktop use, we may be able to make Google services work better by associating this information with other Google services you use and vice versa. This association is based on your Google cookie. You can opt out of sending such non-personal information to Google during the installation process or from the application preferences at any time.

9. Is Google Desktop spyware?

No. Spyware is software that reports on your activities or gathers personal information about you and sends it via the Internet to third parties without your knowledge or consent. Google Desktop is installed only with your explicit consent. And unlike spyware, Google Desktop does not send personal information to Google or any other third party. Please see our software principles for a discussion of spyware and other malicious software.

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If you have any additional questions or ideas please contact us. We appreciate your interest in Google Desktop and your taking the time to write.