After the torrid last week for Google Buzz, it appears that they might insight further disquiet amongst Google users as they make a bizarre PR turn-around on the whole thing. Furthermore, it looks like things are going from bad to worse as EPIC (the Electronic Privacy Information Center), who are a watchdog group filed a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission. Unfortunately for Google this comes despite the changes they’ve made to using Buzz.
Over the last few days Google have been forced to make a variety of changes to Buzz based on a number of privacy concern issues. As these changes were set in motion the product manager for Buzz spoke to the BBC stating that users were ”rightly upset” and that the company was “very, very sorry”. He also accepted the need for the company to improve things. This all seemed quite cut and dry as Google set about making a variety of changes.
However, in a bizarre turnaround on the issue Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive suggested that there were not privacy issues with the service but that the issues were resultant partly from poor communication on Google’s part, but also the fact that users who complained about Buzz were subject to “confusion”.
This assertion most likely won’t go down well with many who have complained about the Buzz service. One user in particular going by the pseudonym Harriet Jacobs who said she was a marital rape survivor said that she had had her privacy invaded when the system thought that she would like to be connected to her abusive ex-husband.
It seems that while Eric Schmidt can argue that Google Buzz was not actually divulging your information to others, it was taking liberty of using your information without your consent. Frankly, the element of Schmidt’s assertions which seems most puzzling is that if there are no immediate problems with the service and it is all down to communication issues, then why the earlier public apology and the need to now make significant changes to the service? Schmidt iterates that the changes are being made to allay people’s fears about using the service and make it “incredibly explicit that it has not been giving them (other users) information without you giving it to them.”
Despite this, the FTC will most likely soon be looking into the remaining issue that Gmail users are being automatically signed into the Buzz service without choice. While Google continue to make changes it seems that nothing is going to go right for Buzz and what was mean to be a grand unveiling is rapidly turning into a bit of a freak show. Post here to let us know what you think of Google’s turn around and Schmidt’s comments.
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