New Google Desktop Features?

Can't say that I'm too keen on some of the new features of Google Desktop. The new 'Search Across Computers' feature allows users to search for certain file types across mulitple computers. While this may be very convenient for folks like myself who routinely use multiple computers, I'm not keen on the idea of my documents being stored on Google's servers.

In order to share your indexed files between your computers, we first copy this content to Google Desktop servers located at Google. This is necessary, for example, if one of your computers is turned off or otherwise offline when new or updated items are indexed on another of your machines.

The EFF is particularly concerned about the possiblity that law enforcement could subpoena information stored on those servers. This would, in effect, allow the government to access data that would normally require a search warrant to obtain.

I'm not an overly paranoid person, but I'm not thirlled about the general direction the state of personal liberties and protections are headed in our country. While this does not necessarily fall into that category; disabling this feature, or abstaining from the use of Google Desktop does represent a simple step that the private citizen can do to protect themselves.