The Buzz Over “Buzz”

You may have heard the clamor over Google’s foray into the social networking sphere, Google Buzz. The latest Google invention was designed to channel all kinds of content into one place, with a user-friendly interface. But since its Feb. 9 product launch, it has created a din of negative buzz, including an FTC complaint filed by a watchdog group and a class-action lawsuit filed by a Harvard University student, as outlets including ABC News have reported.

The problems arose, in large part, from Google Buzz’s default “auto-follow” feature, which has since been dropped. Tested before its launch primarily on a group of Google’s own employees, the feature created a user’s initial social network – the group of individuals from whom users would receive status updates, shared video and other content – from the contacts the user e-mailed most on Gmail. Critics objected to the idea of otherwise private e-mail contacts essentially being made public.     

The service also allowed users’ Gmail e-mail addresses to become public knowledge, and automatically directed the Picasa photo album and Google Reader items into Buzz. Since everyone who uses Gmail got messages and an offer of tutorials about it, word spread quickly. And with that attention came questions about why Google would act so free and loose with users’ contacts and other information. Amid criticism, the company laid the groundwork for an apology delivered Feb. 13. “We’ve heard your feedback loud and clear,” the company wrote on its Gmail blog, promising further improvements.

Google has tweaked the functionality a few different ways. Auto-follow has been replaced with an “auto suggest” mechanism for creating Google has also created a means of turning Buzz “off” and allowing users to decide which information gets made public.

Privacy advocates aren’t satisfied. The Electronic Privacy Information Center has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Google Buzz, suggesting the service “may have violated federal wiretap laws.” The Harvard Law student who has filed suit against the company in San Jose, Calif. federal court suggests the company “unlawfully shared personal data without users' permission,” according to ABC News, and cites the Federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Federal Stored Communications Act and California common and statutory law. A Google spokesperson said the company cannot comment on the suit until it has been served and had a chance to review it.

Last week, CNET search blogger Tom Krazit asked whether Google’s “unique culture really understand[s] the markets in which it wants to participate?” Los Angeles Times’ Jessica Guynn suggested Google has to prove it understands the value users place on privacy. “Otherwise, it will start to lose the trust of its users, who have been reminded for years that the competition is just a click away.”