Google Apologizes for Buzz Privacy Issues Skip to main content

Google Apologizes for Buzz Privacy Issues

By David Coursey
Google has responded to anger over its Buzz social network with an apology and second round of privacy-related changes.
The latest move replaces the controversial "auto-follow" feature with something Google calls "auto-suggest."
Saturday's revision was the second major change to Buzz since the service was introduced last Tuesday. Since then, Google had been besieged by complaints that Buzz endangers user privacy.

"We quickly realized that we didn't get everything quite right," wrote Todd Jackson, Product Manager, Gmail and Google Buzz on the company's Official Gmail Blog.
"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."
I've already written that Google needs to temper its engineering mindset and improve its "people skills." It apparently never occurred to Google that users might not want their lists of followers and who they are following revealed to the world.
As a result of the continued complaints, Google said Buzz will no longer automatically connect users based on their e-mail and chat usage. Instead, the service will offer a list of suggested connections for the new user 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," Jackson wrote.
Also new will be a Buzz tab in Gmail settings, where users can disable Buzz complete if they choose. There is also a setting that permits the user to hide their following and followers lists from their Google profile. Buzz also no longer connects to the user's Picasa album or Google Reader shared items.
Jackson said the latest changes would be implemented over a period of "several days."
On Thursday, responding to immediate criticism of the service, Google made it easier for users to hide their following and followers lists, which some complained could be used by outsiders to determine the relationships between Buzz users.
My take: These changes are welcome, but show only that Google will react to a public hammering. Whether Google has actually learned from its Buzz experience and will head-off future privacy issues must remain to be seen. We can only hope.
David Coursey has been writing about technology products and companies for more than 25 years. He tweets as @techinciter and may be contacted via his Web site.

Ref: pcworld
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chronology of the Press in Burma

1836 – 1846 * During this period the first English-language newspaper was launched under British-ruled Tenasserim, southern  Burma . The first ethnic Karen-language and Burmese-language newspapers also appear in this period.     March 3, 1836 —The first English-language newspaper,  The Maulmain Chronicle , appears in the city of Moulmein in British-ruled Tenasserim. The paper, first published by a British official named E.A. Blundell, continued up until the 1950s. September 1842 —Tavoy’s  Hsa-tu-gaw  (the  Morning Star ), a monthly publication in the Karen-language of  Sgaw ,  is established by the Baptist mission. It is the first ethnic language newspaper. Circulation reached about three hundred until its publication ceased in 1849. January 1843 —The Baptist mission publishes a monthly newspaper, the Christian  Dhamma  Thadinsa  (the  Religious Herald ), in Moulmein. Supposedly the first Burmese-language newspaper, it continued up until the first year of the second Angl
Post a Comment
Read more

ARSA claims ambush on Myanmar security forces

Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on Sunday claimed responsibility for an ambush on Myanmar security forces that left several wounded in northern Rakhine state, the first attack in weeks in a region gutted by violence. Rakhine was plunged into turmoil last August, when a series of ARSA raids prompted a military backlash so brutal the UN says it likely amounts to ethnic cleansing of the Muslim Rohingya minority. The army campaign sent some 650,000 Rohingya fleeing for Bangladesh, where refugees have given harrowing accounts of rape, murder and arson at the hands of security forces and vigilantes. Myanmar's military, which tightly controls information about Rakhine, denies any abuses and insists the crackdown was a proportionate response to crush the "terrorist" threat. ARSA have launched few attacks in recent months.  But the army reported that "about ten" Rohingya terrorists ambushed a car with hand-made mines and gunfire on Friday morning
Post a Comment
Read more

Thai penis whitening trend raises eyebrows

Image copyright LELUXHOSPITAL Image caption Authorities warn the procedure could be quite painful A supposed trend of penis whitening has captivated Thailand in recent days and left it asking if the country's beauty industry is taking things too far. Skin whitening is nothing new in many Asian countries, where darker skin is often associated with outdoor labour, therefore, being poorer. But even so, when a clip of a clinic's latest intriguing procedure was posted online, it quickly went viral. Thailand's health ministry has since issued a warning over the procedure. The BBC Thai service spoke to one patient who had undergone the treatment, who told them: "I wanted to feel more confident in my swimming briefs". The 30-year-old said his first session of several was two months ago, and he had since seen a definite change in the shade. 'What for?' The original Facebook post from the clinic offering the treatment, which uses lasers to break do
1 comment
Read more