Privacy, Buzz, and Beyond

In the two days since Google Buzz has been announced, a few privacy concerns have already popped up. Whether you’re interested in Buzz or not, the key point remains that it is up to you to be proactive and take as much control as possible over your information.

As with Facebook, Buzz lets you control many settings, but many of the default options require you to act if you want to keep certain information private.

One major Buzz issue concerns the use of geo-location – announcing where you are to all your followers based on where you sent your Buzz from. Larry Magid’s article covers this thoroughly. Simple takeaway: make sure this feature is off if you don’t like it.

Buzz also searches your email and chat contacts to create your initial list of followers based on those you correspond with most (who also have Buzz enabled). The list is public… which means everyone knows who you correspond with most.

This article in the Business Insider describes the problem (and the way to solve it) in more detail (thanks to Linda Gerber for the link!).

There are additional concerns here, too -  friend lists are public by default. Agreeing to be Buzz friends therefore opens up your information to all your friends’ friends. You can hide your friend list (unlike on Facebook), but again… you have to opt in to that.

I am sure there will be other areas of concern, much as there have been at Facebook (and other networks, too). Google might address some of these, as the product just came out. Time will tell.

Again, the point I’d like to stress is not to be scared but instead to be aware. Control what information you can by checking your privacy options… and know that you never have to be a member of any specific network if you don’t want to be.

Tagged as: Buzz, privacy