Do you guys know anything about Google Browser Syncrhornizer?

Answer 1

As I understand it, it's a plugin that reads your browser settings and stores them in Google's storage. The upshot to the user is that they can then take their bookmarks, stored cookies, etc with them when they change computers, so long as all the computers are running firefox and this plugin. There really isn't anything very interesting here, it's just caching a bunch of your data remotely.


Since this is the security section, and since google claims to store "bookmarks, history, persistent cookies, and saved passwords," you should be aware that these things will be stored in google's storage... so if it's absolutely, completely necessary for you to keep your passwords safe, a) you shouldn't store them in the browser in the first place, b) if you do store them in the browser and let google sync them for you, they'll be present in google's storage. They claim they aren't evil, just like most villians and corporations, but there is no reason to trust them with your passwords.

Another note on passwords, bookmarks, etc. This is all tied to your google user account. That means if someone else gets your account, they can get your bookmarks, passwords, cookies, etc. If you have anything sensitive saved (and you shouldn't, but if you do) you are making yourself vulnerable by putting everything behind a single password. If your keystrokes are sniffed, if someone breaks into google's servers, or if you tell someone your google password for some other reason, you stand to get screwed.