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Hello,
I have a question regarding privacy and the transition from xp professional to Vista.

Google Desktop makes it possible to trace back worddocuments, visited webpages, even e-mails and that were deleted a long time ago on the harddisk, in the internet history... With this google feature, someone else can actually trace back e-mail messages in hotmail, yahoo, gmail....that you have sent on a particular (public) computer, without even knowing the password of the account. All one has to do is type in "hotmail", "inbox", ...and then choose 'cache' near the search results. For finding long time deleted word documents, all it takes is typing in a couple of key words, and
you will find the deleted word document.

On the Windows Xp computer at my former job, I typed a few confidential Word Documents. I deleted them with shift-delete on my last day. Technically, it is possible that my successor is able to find them (deliberatly or by coincidence) through Google Desktop.

On which location are these deleted word documents being kept on the hard disk?

I have now heard that they have new computers with Vista at my former job. This means that a transition was made: the "My Documents", the Outlook... from the old Xp computer were being copied to the new Vista Computer.

Does this mean that my confidential deleted Word documents are now 'hidden' somewhere on the Vista computer hard disk?

Windows Vista has an "instant search". Is this feature as thorough as google desktop or does it only show the Word Documents and E-mails that are not deleted and visible on the computer?

I think Google Desktop is a dangerous tool and Google should cancel this feature because of privacy reasons.

Thank you

Hi Bart,

To start: don't cross-post in our forums, once is enough. Please read our rules at the top of any forum.

There are/were some privacy concerns about the Google Desktop. Wikipedia has a good list of the ones about the current version of Google Desktop:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Desktop#Criticisms

It is true that Google Desktop archives things that you might want to keep secret later-on, including files that have been deleted, but that is your responsibility to know and understand. You might say the same thing about a diary, that it represents a privacy risk, because it represents a central location for all of your thoughts. It is up to you to make sure that you keep your own information confidential. Google Desktop is optional software, and those who are worried about the privacy of their computer should not use it. It is a tool, and like all tools can be used for good or bad. Using a public computer (or one at work) for private issues is not a good idea in any case, Google Desktop or not. Technically, it is possible to recover a permanently deleted (shift-deleted) file, even without Google Desktop being installed. There are simple programs that can "undelete" a file that has been deleted, or even advanced forensics that can read old data from a hard disk that has even been overwritten!

In this day and age, with computers and the internet being so pervasive, keeping private information private requires some good common sense, and a good head on your shoulders. Sometimes you need to read the fine-print or do some investigation on your own. Even with locks on the front doors your house can be robbed, so sometimes even security measures aren't enough. It is up to you to make sure confidential info is private, and I think that common-sense things like not doing confidential stuff on public computers is a good place to start. You could always write to your previous workplace and ask them if they could delete it. If you're a nice guy, I'm sure they'd be happy to.