According to http://www.google-watch.org 6. Google's toolbar is spyware: With the advanced features enabled, Google's free toolbar for Explorer phones home with every page you surf, and yes, it reads your cookie too. Their privacy policy confesses this, but that's only because Alexa lost a class-action lawsuit when their toolbar did the same thing, and their privacy policy failed to explain this. Worse yet, Google's toolbar updates to new versions quietly, and without asking. This means that if you have the toolbar installed, Google essentially has complete access to your hard disk every time you connect to Google (which is many times a day). Most software vendors, and even Microsoft, ask if you'd like an updated version. But not Google. Any software that updates automatically presents a massive security risk. 5. Google hires spooks: Matt Cutts, a key Google engineer, used to work for the National Security Agency. Google wants to hire more people with security clearances, so that they can peddle their corporate assets to the spooks in Washington.
Old news. Just turn off the "advanced features" option - or don't enable it during the install (it DOES ask if you want to enable the advanced features during the installation). BTW, practically every ad banner on millions of web sites that people routinely surf are recording your surfing history.
I don't talk about recording your surfing history, it's about access to your hard disk. When you install an activex it can access any part of your computer !
Geez, everything's a conspiracy to some people. Probably want to double check that there aren't any holes in the aluminum foil helmet so the CIA/NSA can't beam instructions by microwave. The toolbar's code has already been decompiled by at least a dozen groups - if there was ANYTHING non-kosher in it, they'd be screaming at the top of their lungs already about it