Follow on Facebook
Follow on TwitterBeing the techie that I am, I downloaded Google Chrome onto a test PC as soon as it was available and I’ve been testing it. I had fun trying out Google Chrome, but I won’t be using it and I STRONGLY URGE YOU NOT TO EITHER.
Why?
Because as The Register points out the EULA grants Google:
‘a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive licence to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content that you submit, post or display on or through’
You can read more in the article Burned by Chrome. As a result I won’t be using it beyond my testing. It’s a shame Google has taken this approach as Chrome is fast and seems to have the potential to be a good browser (ignoring the obvious bugs like being unable to properly render text entered into a textarea).
For now however, I strongly urge you NOT to use Chrome until Google changes it’s awful EULA… I guess the concept of "do no evil" as the company motto has long gone…
Update 4th September 2008
Google has reacted to the negative criticism and modified their EULA to remove the offending sections, once again the register has more details. Google blames the offending section on having mistakenly cut and pasted the terms from another legal document – a pathetic excuse which seems unlikely to be true, but if it is true I hope they are issuing a written warning to the head fo the legal department for gross incompetence as clearly he/she does not take their responsibilities seriously.
Email This Post
This blog is about business opportunities and ideas that I spot, think of or hear about and think are useful and interesting. It is intended to provide ideas and inspriation for you to help you find the right business idea for you to then grow it into a successful business.
When I heard google was going to release chrome the other day I figured they would use it for stats purposes, not for taking all your content!!! Sounds like they’re trying to own the web!
It does rather, though it seems they’ve now quietly edited the EULA to be slightly more reasonable.
A little dishonest to try and get away with it at all though.
Wonder how long it will be before Google take over the most hated company from Microsoft? I tried Chrome yesterday and it did seem much quicker than IE & FF.
Phil,
Not long I suspect. Especially as they take more market share from Microsoft.
Why is anyone concerned about Google’s approach to privacy? Our own Government has ridden rough shod over our own daily liberties, and nobody cares. The Government introduced the Regulatory Investigative Powers Act and GB has made the Queen sign away our national sovereignty. This is pin money in comparison.
Mike,
Because this is NOT a matter of privacy it’s a matter of ownership and as a business owner you probably do not want to sign away rights to your intellectual property.
John,
Since when did posting in the public domain of the internet ever imply you had ownership? You have copyright on your websites content to prevent re-publishing or duplicating of your content. But you never have ownership, otherwise you shouldn’t post your content to the web.
Mike,
Posting on the Internet has never implied ownership or transferred ownership to the public domain.
You own content because you either a) created it or b) brought the ownership rights. Publishing your material on the Internet or otherwise does not affect your ownership.