The latest hype is all about Google’s new social media platform: Google Buzz. They kicked off very strongly, yet something was amiss. They didn’t start out on the right foot.
For starters, it became very quickly apparent the Google Buzz did away with the little thing we love to call privacy. The first iteration of Buzz exposed every single users contact list to the world. People didn’t even have a choice of it, they were automatically signed up for it with their lists exposed. Business Insider described it very well in their article “WARNING: Google Buzz Has A Huge Privacy Flaw“.
After a short day or two Google quickly ‘fixed’ the issue. It only took two days, 6000+ tweets and 500,000+ complaints JUST from Business Insider viewers. I can’t imagine how many people complained about it, really just have been a significantly larger amount than that. According to Google’s own blog:
We’ve had plenty of feature requests, and some direct feedback. In particular there’s been concern from some people who thought their contacts were being made public without their knowledge (in particular the lists of people they follow, and the people following them). In addition, others felt they had too little control over who could follow them and were upset that they lacked the ability to block people who didn’t yet have public profiles from following them.
At least they acknowledged the problem and tried to fix it (read here). Though it wasn’t enough. Today’s internet culture is especially sensative to privacy and it’s something Google blatantly violated. At least one person decided to take up arms against Google.
A class action law suit was filed against Google (particularly against Buzz) for what the suit says “Google Inc. broke the law when its controversial Google Buzz service shared personal data without the consent of users”.
Among other things, critics raised concerns this could — or possibly did — aid stalkers, jeopardize journalist sources, or hint at affairs.
The legal complaint accuses Google of breaking various electronic communications laws, including the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The plaintiff is seeking injunctions to prevent the company from taking similar actions in the future, and unspecified monetary relief.
Hibnick is seeking to bring the complaint on behalf of all Gmail users whose accounts were automatically linked to Buzz. The filing noted there were 31.2 million Gmail users in January and that Google “added the Buzz program to most or all of these accounts.”
The San Francisco Chronicle details it here.
They lawsuit isn’t without merrit. Google did over steps it’s bounds in that. And should we just give them a slap on the wrist because of their “Do no evil, be no evil” corporate policy? I think not. Just because they are a (very) big company does not absolve them of crimes.
Over at the Consumist, they detail the tail of Harriet Jacobs who believes that she was (or could have been) very publicly humiliated by the sudden release of all the Gmail/Buzz and Google reader conversations and comments:
I use my private Gmail account to email my boyfriend and my mother. There’s a BIG drop-off between them and my other “most frequent” contacts. You know who my third most frequent contact is. My abusive ex-husband.Which is why it’s SO EXCITING, Google, that you AUTOMATICALLY allowed all my most frequent contacts access to my Reader, including all the comments I’ve made on Reader items, usually shared with my boyfriend, who I had NO REASON to hide my current location or workplace from, and never did.
…
F*ck you, Google. My privacy concerns are not trite. They are linked to my actual physical safety, and I will now have to spend the next few days maintaining that safety by continually knocking down followers as they pop up. A few days is how long I expect it will take before you either knock this sh*t off, or I delete every Google account I have ever had and use Bing out of f*cking spite.
Youch. Gizmodo has the full posting. It’s not a light read either, so if you have kids next to you, cover their eyes while you read. I wish it were a story from a movie, alas it is not. It’s sad and very true.
To top it all off, apparently Buzz is a nice cesspool breeding ground for phishing scams. The Consumerist’s article said it best:
Unseemly Internet crooks have begun introducing corrupted search result links into the cybersphere. When clicked on, your PC could become part of a Borg-like botnet, dealing out spam and possibly giving up your personal data in the process.
Security experts say that fake pharmaceuticals spammers are already taking advantage of Google Buzz with the ultimate intent of accessing the data available in the victim’s Gmail account.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center is currently preparing a formal complaint to the FCC regarding Google Buzz, the same group that led a similar campaign against Facebook’s questionable privacies policies.
Google really doesn’t have it easy these days. Though in all fairness I do find it a interesting tool (even though it has flaws). There is plenty of reading material on how it’s good, it’s features and what it can do for you (in a good way). All of which is well worth the read, especially if you are in the social marketing game. Thank Michel Fortin for this great link: 30+ Google Buzz How To’s and Tools via SEOptimize.
Even Armand Morin said some good praise for Buzz (especially over something like Twitter):
??”I DON’T THINK IN 140 CHARACTERS”
Here’s my point. If I have a thought or something I want to say, I’m sorry, but I can’t do it in 140 characters. If I do it’s all chopped up and doesn’t remotely look like what I was trying to say. My message and more importantly, my message’s meaning is dampened.
It really has it’s ups and down. Maybe we can finally figure out this Buzz thing together. Tell us what you think of Google’z Buzz below in the comments below.
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