Buzz Violates Privacy

Everyone is buzzing about Google’s new attempt to compete with Twitter and Facebook and take its share of the interactive communication pie. Its Google Buzz is a new addition to Gmail that allows users to post updates, ‘follow’ their closest email friends, and have them ‘follow’ them back.

However, all this ‘buzz’ is already backfiring on Google, and if it does not quickly rectify some major mistakes in ‘Buzz’s’ settings, it could end up like Facebook with Beacon. As many media outlets report, the problem with Buzz is that if a user fails to change their settings immediately, the list of people they correspond with via Gmail automatically becomes visible to the entire world. One does not need to be an activist in a totalitarian country to understand how problematic this oversight can be, especially since there is a warning upon logging into Buzz that information about the people who ‘follow’ you will be available on your profile; however, it does not specify that this includes all those Gmail users with whom email is exchanged. Google could have avoided the entire negative publicity simply by asking: ‘Do you want the people we suggest based on your email contacts to be those you want to ‘follow’?

Warning: the list of people you correspond with will automatically become public.’ Why it did not do this is unknown even to itself. Its PR team is trying to repair the damage done, but there is no announcement that the basic Buzz settings will be changed anytime soon. In the meantime, for users to hide the list of people they correspond with, they need to click on Gmail’s Edit Profile and change the setting there. Of course, this option is not visible on Buzz’s page.  Additionally, Buzz takes a photo found in Google Talk settings without asking. The problem is ultimately simple: when it comes to email, users expect privacy. This privacy can be achieved on Buzz; however, it is not present in the basic settings, which undermines user trust. Such negative publicity is certainly not what Google needs when every new Buzz user can simply opt out of that social network and go to Facebook or Twitter, whose settings they have under control.  (Kristina Kardum)