Google Update Turns Open Source

Google Update is a background program by Google that gets installed if the user installs Google software like Google Pack on a computer system. The program has caused some concern – more so than other background updaters with the exception of ctfmon.exe – because of the frequency that it gets reinstalled and reactivated by Google software on the computer system. The annoyance of seeing the Google Update process appear running over and over again after killing and uninstalling it was not the only concern that many users shared.

It was not transparent which data was transferred to Google servers while running Google Updater; And as the software was running in the background all the time it was probably the major concern that was voiced by users and privacy advocates. Google would not be Google if they could not come up with a solution to those privacy concerns: Their solution was to make Google Updater Open Source so that anyone (well not really anyone but those with the skill and knowledge to do so) could analyse the source in detail to find out about the data connections of the application. Google Updater was released with the codename Omaha at Google Code where it can be publicly downloaded.

Users who are interested in removal instructions can take a look at our article about removing Google Update on the Windows operating system.

• Reddit
• StumbleUpon
• Delicious
• Digg
• Twitter

Tags: Google, google privacy, google software, google update, google updater, Open Source, privacy
Categories: Google, Security, software

Related posts:

5 Responses to “Google Update Turns Open Source”

1. Paul says:

   April 13, 2009 at 8:35 pm

   I don’t care what it dose I just want it to stop being reinstalled/activated.

   Reply
2. abhijit says:

   April 13, 2009 at 10:55 pm

   By the way, the Google Updater is added as a Scheduled Task in Windows. And it is set to start when the system is idle.

   You can see the scheduled Tasks on your computer by going to Control Panel -> Scheduled Tasks.

   If you see the Google Updater there, just delete the task and it will never start again!

   Reply
3. ElCortezHotelLV says:

   April 14, 2009 at 12:05 am

   Great! thanks for the link in how to remove it!

   Reply

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

1. Google Update Turns Open Source | Open Hacking says:

   April 13, 2009 at 7:51 pm

   [...] more here: Google Update Turns Open Source This entry was posted on Monday, April 13th, 2009 at 11:39 am and is filed under Linux, News, [...]

   Reply
2. The Come Back Of Our Latest Important News On The Web Weekly Article | 4 Free On Internet says:

   April 19, 2009 at 1:04 am

   [...] 1.  GHacks – Google Update Turns Open Source [...]

   Reply