Google’s Toolbar for Internet Explorer and Firefox serves as a gateway to a variety of software services provided by the search giant, many of which require a user to provide Google with information on the site that’s currently displayed in the browser. A Harvard professor that focuses on spyware issues has now discovered that this information continues to be sent in to Google even if the Toolbar is inactivated.

The academic in question, Benjamin Edelman, starts with a full disclosure of his conflicts of interest: he consults for Google competitors such as Microsoft and has been involved in a lawsuit against the company. None of that necessarily alters the basics of his findings, which are extensively documented, but it may influence how they’re presented.

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