The Electronic Frontier Foundation is reporting that the latest verion of the Google Desktop search application has a new feature that poses an increased risk to the user's privacy. The new feature, "Search Across Computers" will store copies of the user's documents (Word, PDF, spreadsheet, etc...) on Google owned servers. The idea is to allow the user to search from any of the user's computers. -- I would also envision a type of _Search_From_Anywhere_ feature to be coming in the not so distant future, but this is pure speculation for now. -- According the the EFF, this new feature

will make [the user's] personal data more vulnerable to subpoenas from the government and possibly private litigants, while providing a convenient one-stop-shop for hackers who've obtained a user's Google password.

Call me paranoid, but I've never used the Google Desktop, nor any of its competitors, for I've always feared that these type of applications were a gateway for security and privacy violations. Anyhow, be sure to check out the EFF article as they dive a bit deeper into the subject and provide some great resources on Google's data collection practices.

Also on one final note, I ask that you, Google, remember your corporate mantra -- Don't be Evil.