Google Buzz is a new social networking service launched by Google at the beginning of February. Google Buzz links directly with Gmail, allowing users to share updates, photos, videos and more. This allows users to start conversations about the things they find interesting.
The main issue users initially had with Google Buzz was the lack of opportunity to opt in or out of this new service. In fact, Google Buzz was automatically rolled out to 170 million Gmail users, without anyone being given the option to ‘opt in’. Many users saw this as an invasion of privacy, as there wasn’t a notification to inform users of the introduction of Buzz, giving them the option to refrain from sharing personal information.
With the original release of Buzz, some users found the people they emailed the most through Gmail had been published online. It has since been reported by TechCrunch that private email addresses can be exposed via the service as well.
Google have been faced with the difficult conundrum of having to apologise to users and back-track, reorganising the site so that users have the option to disable Buzz and block the users who they don’t want to be followed by. With all these changes now in place, the question is: will they be enough to restore users' faith in Gmail?
Google isn't the only one with privacy problems...
Facebook has been dealing with privacy issues since it began. The site has been continuously updating its privacy options to try and reduce the concern users have, while still trying to have strong relationships with Google and Bing. But, through changes in their privacy settings, Facebook has encouraged users to display all information with everyone.
Details published while settings are set to ‘everyone’ are removed from the user’s profile when the settings have been set back to 'reduced disclosure'. However, that data will have been sent out for the entire world to see, and what has been done with that data is unknown to the user.
Is Facebook really giving more control to the user?
Although users are led to believe that the new privacy settings are to improve personal privacy, the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) took a closer look at the changes, to figure out if this really was the case, with the conclusion that the new privacy settings were clearly intended to push Facebook users to publicly share even more information than before. Even worse - the changes actually reduced the amount of control that users had over their personal data.
With the new Facebook privacy settings comes the ability to control who sees which post. The settings can be controlled so that only business colleagues see a status update, or only friends can see a personal photo. But do these changes actually rebuild users’ confidence that their personal information is safe on Facebook?
Controversies over Facebook’s privacy settings have caused many users to pay attention to their settings and ensure that only the information they want to share is publicly available. The main reason Facebook wants to publicise personal information and status updates is so that they can compete with Twitter with live streaming of updates. However, the nature of Facebook is more private, so this could lead to the types of membership losses previously experienced by Myspace and Friendster.
Gmail and 'email processing'
Google's Gmail is the only email provider that processes emails. This is done to allow targeted adverts. Google ensure that the email is never read by another human being other than the receiver. However, some users believe that the practice of ‘processing’ emails goes beyond what is acceptable.
Further to Gmail issues and Buzz problems, Google has come under criticism for its Street View, with its ability for people to be seen in places they were not expected. This led to many issues of privacy, with the original photos being displayed with people’s faces being shown while being arrested or publicly urinating. Most of these issues have been dealt with now by faces being blurred.
This begs the question - do online providers release new initiatives before really thinking the privacy issues that they will face, or do they consider the potential of a new medium over an individual’s privacy?