Google Buzz is a new service that Google has introduced to compete with Twitter. Buzz allows you to publish short status messages as well as pictures, videos, etc.
Unfortunately, Google has made some assumptions about the service that may impact your privacy.
I don’t like to read, but I like my privacy, just tell me what I should do!
- Log into GMail’s web interface. You may see the Buzz announcement. If you do, click “Nah, just go to my inbox“.
- Go to the very bottom of the GMail web page. On the second line from the bottom, in very small letters, you will see “turn off buzz“. Click that.
- Next go to your Google Profile page and make sure that “Display the list of people I’m following and people following me” is unchecked. This checkbox option is on the “About me” tab, third column next to the “Other names” field. Save your changes (”save changes”) button at the bottom of the profile page. If you don’t have a public profile, you can skip this step.
I like to read! Tell me more!
The following assumptions are made by Buzz.
Assumption: You want to turn on Buzz
When you first sign into the GMail web interface, Google announces Buzz to you and gives you two options: 1) Yes activate Buzz and 2) No just take me to my inbox. These options are misleading. The second option still activates Buzz and you will see “Buzz” on the left hand side of the GMail web interface. The “No just take me to my inbox” link merely bypasses the Buzz welcome screen. This is an issue because Buzz, by default, publishes some information about you that you may not want published.
Assumption: You want the world to see who’s following you and who you are following.
In order to use Buzz you must create a public profile. When you first create this, it will fill in your name and whatever photo/icon you associated with your account (you may have none).
Once you’ve created a public profile on your Google account settings page, then Buzz will automatically publish your followers and who you are following to your public profile. This is true even if you’ve filled in nothing but your name in your public profile. When you first create your public profile, Google sets all of the privacy impacting options to “off” (unchecked) but Buzz breaks from this tradition and sets itself to “on”. For example, if you’ve created a public profile, but only specified that your name be published, you might assume that that will continue to be the case. That assumption is wrong, as Buzz will add additional information to your public profile without you taking explicit action. Since Buzz is tied to your address book, you are in effect publishing a portion of your address book to the world — the portion of your address book you are ‘following’ or the portion that is ‘following’ you.
Assumption: You want all of your email contacts (and anyone else) to see your status changes
When someone with whom you’ve exchanged email in the past logs into GMail, they will see you as someone they can follow. They are able to follow you without your approval. When you post to Buzz be sure to mark your post as “Private” if you want to post it only to select members of your Contacts. The default is “Public”.
Summary and Additional Reading
Since Google has tied Buzz closely to email, you may carry some of your privacy expectations from email over to Buzz. Buzz, however, is different than email and you should be careful about allowing it to peek into your email content and address book.
You should read the Buzz privacy policy. Be wary of words like “may” and “opt out”. Those usually mean Google is going to assume you are granting them permission to do something.
This article discusses also discusses privacy issues with regard to Buzz.
Tags: Gogole Buzz
