The hype associated with Google’s new social networking tool Buzz has turned a little sour on the tech giant. After responding to privacy criticisms of the service with an apology and an upgrade, Google is still being sued in America for failing to implement the privacy standards in the first place.
The federal court of California received a class action lawsuit seeking to include all 31.2 million Gmail users as potential plaintiffs.
Buzz was made accessible to Gmail account holders last week and was automatically activated for a number of users. This created publicly accessible lists of followers from people’s Gmail accounts and past Gtalk conversations.
The lawsuit is concerned that sensitive information related to some contacts may have been exposed in this roll-out.
Google had built in privacy controls into Buzz, although it wasn't clear how users could make their list of followers private.
“We heard from people that the check box for choosing not to display this information was too hard to find, and based on this feedback, we’ve changed the notice to make it very clear,” the tech giant said in a blog post.
Google also said it has provided an opt out setting in the Buzz set-up for anyone who didn't want to publicly share the lists of their followers, and of who they are following.
"We are making this option more prominent in the set up process, to ensure everyone who wanted to hide these lists can do so easily," Google said.
As a result of the continued complaints, Buzz will now no longer automatically connect users based on their e-mail and chat usage. Instead, you will see a list of connections to accept or reject.
“For the tens of millions of you who have already started using Buzz, over the next couple weeks we’ll be showing you a similar version of this new start-up experience to give you a second chance to review and confirm the people you’re following,” said Todd Jackson, Product Manager for Gmail and Google Buzz.
Mr Jackson had further apologised for the initial privacy oversight.
“We’re very sorry for the concern we’ve caused and have been working hard ever since to improve things based on your feedback. We’ll continue to do so.”
Are you concerned about your Google account privacy? Leave us a comment and let us know.
7 thoughts on “Google Sued for Buzz Privacy Issues”
I think there may be more of this sort of lawsuit in the future. There are too many gaps in the system.
internet security and privacy is a big issue, expect more to follow.
We need these lawsuits to keep the large companies in check.
I agree with Jeffrey, they are just too many gaps. Social media was meant to share stuff and make them public so you can “socialize”. Of course there will be privacy issues if that’s the sole purpose.
Security is a huge issue and the ever increasing worries by people worried about identity theft is remarkable.