The TIW Blog

As if you didn’t have enough to deal with, Google has gone online with its new Buzz application, an add-on that fits nicely into its Gmail application. A friendly blurb under the unsolicited Buzz option in Gmail tells users that they are already configured to have all their personal information shared on the Internet without their will. Users can also log into Buzz directly by going to buzz.google.com. When you do go to the Buzz site, it inexplicably gives you the option to add Buzz to Gmail even though Buzz was added to Gmail accounts automatically.

Some people might appreciate the way that Buzz has stormed into your life without invitation, but others might consider it one more intrusion into privacy by Google, not to mention an offense to personal autonomy. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t ask for Buzz, yet I have it, along with all its privacy concerns (like the sharing of my Google contact list, for example). I’m also not too thrilled at the prospect of having my email address disclosed whenever someone decides to include me in a Buzz. Furthermore, Buzz’s interaction with Android appears to share all photos from Android without any authorization or notification.

Apparently, Google has learned nothing from Facebook’s experience taking liberties with user information. By just showing up into the lives of Google users, Buzz has automatically shared your information with people in your contact list and has taken the extraordinary step of publishing your private information to your Google public profile. The potential for spammers and shady marketers is already being exploited as Internet scoundrels scour Google profiles to harvest your contact list as they develop their Buzz networking. As if enough people aren’t already using social networking as an avenue to make a buck.

Now that Google has made you a target for still more global scams, you also need to know that every time does an @ to you, they are broadcasting your email address to the entire world. This is a direct affront to the tradition of preserving a user’s email address as private information in social networking.

If you’re looking for something good about Buzz, I have this to say: Buzz hasn’t enabled by default the publication of your exact location by address. That’s funny… wouldn’t all the creeps out there want to know where you are at every second of the day? Sheesh. Just be sure to decline this feature on your Android device, else you’re going to be stalked by all sorts of freaks. Also, pay attention to the fact that the “Remember this preference” box is checked by default, so if you enable your location once, you could be permanently exposed if you’re not careful.

Buzz displays the identities and addresses of all users near you, enabling serious personal security and privacy issues every time you send a Buzz.

While you can take steps that make Buzz safer, Google’s reckless deployment of Buzz to the detriment of its users is outrageous. It should have instead deployed Buzz with security and privacy protections in place, giving users the choice of enabling its risky features.

Buzz doesn’t have much of a chance with me until Google has the courtesy to ask me if I want it and to let me know that it’s going to prevent me from being spammed, followed, and harassed by the seamy side of the Internet it seems so intent on pleasing.

Google has added the ability to turn Buzz off from within Gmail.Just log into your Gmail account, scroll to the bottom and click the option to turn it off.

And you thought Facebook had privacy issues?

The Google Buzz privacy policy