EPIC Files Google Buzz Privacy Complaint With FTC
February 18, 2010 by admin
Filed under Social Networking, Tech News
Many have been up-in-arms over the privacy SNAFU that was Google Buzz upon release and, in fact, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed a formal complaint with the FTC on Tuesday (.PDF). In the complaint, EPIC said that Google Buzz:
violated user privacy expectations, diminished user privacy, contradicted Google’s own privacy policy, and may have also violated federal wiretap laws.
That’s pretty strong language. There is less of an expectation of privacy with Gmail, as Google scans your email in order to publish relevant ads in Gmail. Still, the issue of automatically activating Buzz, even if you selected “Nah, go to my inbox” when prompted about the feature, and of promoting your most frequently emailed contacts into automatic “followers” was noted by EPIC as perhaps the biggest problems. One stark example, of course, was the well publicized blog post by blogger Harriet Jacobs, who said:
I use my private Gmail account to email my boyfriend and my mother.
There’s a BIG drop-off between them and my other “most frequent” contacts.
You know who my third most frequent contact is?
My abusive ex-husband.
Which is why it’s SO EXCITING, Google, that you AUTOMATICALLY allowed all my most frequent contacts access to my Reader, including all the comments I’ve made on Reader items, usually shared with my boyfriend, who I had NO REASON to hide my current location or workplace from, and never did. [...]
F*ck you, Google. My privacy concerns are not trite. They are linked to my actual physical safety, and I will now have to spend the next few days maintaining that safety by continually knocking down followers as they pop up. A few days is how long I expect it will take before you either knock this sh*t off, or I delete every Google account I have ever had and use Bing out of f*cking spite.
Additionally, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada looking into Google Buzz as well. Canada has much more stringent privacy laws than the U.S., and has previously objected to Google Street View.
Google now finds itself in a place that Toyota sits as well. It is embroiled in a major FUBAR and now needs to fix things. So far, however, it’s clear that Google is willing to change things, as its already made two such changes. Unfortunately, for people like Jacobs, the damage may already be done.
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