I use GMAIL and it worries me that all my life is stored on some server in the Googleplex. But I guess I trusted a company whose motto was “DON’T BE EVIL”.
Now I have just installed Chrome – the new and very slick browser from Google. Call me an early adopter!
It will not become my favourite browser until I have a feeds extension as per Firefox.
But one thing has really got me. Go to options on the tool menu on the right side and you can make all saved passwords visible. Oi – this is in an age of identity theft where I travel globally with a laptop! And I run finances from this laptop.
Firefox also has such an option – but at least you can hide it with a master password. Microsoft – for all their reputation for security flaws are just not that stupid.
If this keeps up the boys from
John Hempton
PS. I have a cynical take on this. This is a browser with a really neat incognito feature. It allows you to visit sites without leaving any trace on your computer. A porn feature if you will. Google is encouraging pornography.
So you can be secure from your wife when you are checking out the internet sites of escort agencies. But you can't secure your financial passwords! Tells you about Google's priorities.Obvious reason: Google makes lots of money on advertising sexual services. They don't lose lots on identity theft. People - even those that profess not to be evil - act according to the incentives given them.
Having worked a reasonable amount on and with security software, I'd say the way to go is to have a good third party application for your passwords, and make sure it is in a "locked" state whenever you are not using it.
ReplyDeleteI am now a Mac user and use something called 1Password, but I used to use an application called PasswordSafe (free, open source) when I used Windows.
What both these applications do is that they hold passwords in a strongly encrypted file which can only be opened with your master password.
Nothing is idiot proof, but I prefer these solutions with random, long generated passwords over no password manager and simple passwords..
Did you complain about this in their beta report feature? This is, after all, a beta version.
ReplyDeleteInteresting perspective, and great points about the password feature. I wasn't aware of that. Looks like I'll hold off on Chrome.
ReplyDeleteRead this and tell me what you think about how evil google really is.
ReplyDeleteGoogle is slowly controlling and analyzing for profit all the information that passes through there servers, with little or no oversight (espically as some of these are based overseas)....
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