The beta version of Google’s new open-source Chrome browser has certainly been something of a hit since arriving earlier this week to challenge fellow Web alternatives Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari.
Google moves to quieten complaints regarding rights issues in Chrome\'s EULA. Image: Google.
Yet, while the first wave of users seem largely thrilled with its sandbox tabs, slick simplicity and superior speed, the browser’s end user license agreement (EULA) has once again brought unwanted focus to privacy-related millstone that continues to hang about Google’s corporate neck.
Specifically, one particular aspect of Chrome’s EULA has caused an uproar amongst privacy advocates after learning that Google, as the Web browser’s creator, would be able to claim the rights to any content submitted, posted or displayed by the user on or through Chrome.
The rights-related element of Chrome’s EULA stated that Google would be entitled to “a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or through, the Services [namely Chrome].”
With Google’s reputation already tarnished by privacy issues connected to how the company deals with the online history and habits of those who use its market-leading search engine, the California-based giant has been quick to protect Chrome’s otherwise positive reception by rescinding the contentious term of service.
In doing so, Google has reworded that aspect of the EULA, placing content rights firmly in the hands of those opting to use the Chrome browser. It now reads “you [the user] retain copyright and any other rights that you already hold in Content that you submit, post or display on or through the Services.”
The company has also said the initial condition’s inclusion was the unfortunate result of a copy-and-paste error connected to Google re-using certain elements of an existing Universal Terms of Service document to create one specific to Chrome.
“Sometimes, as in the case of Google Chrome, this means that the legal terms for a specific product may include terms that don’t apply well to the use of that product,” commented a Google spokeswoman.
The BBC News service reports that this week’s confusion over Chrome’s EULA follows on from a rush of controversy in 2007 surrounding similar rights claims written into the end user license agreement for the Google Docs application. Google also responded to resulting complaints in that instance by rewording the condition.
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