Google Buzz Privacy
You’ve probably heard the ‘buzz’ about Google’s new application and it’s privacy issues. Whether you think it is an issue or not, you should look into it to make sure that there are people in your contacts that are okay with having their profile information so public.
The real threat was the simple fact that whoever was following you (or if you were following a friend), that users email address was available for public view. Now, it’s not like some average joe is going to go around the Internet and start collecting email addresses, but Joe isn’t the guy that you need to worry about, either.
Spammers could run bots to collect email addresses that are unprotected and this could potentially fill your email inbox with letters from your long lost lover in Nigeria that would like to give you that 50 million USD you’ve earned. This wouldn’t have hurt you, but it would have been annoying.
So, to all of my contacts, you’re covered. I’ve blocked you from spammers.
What do you think? Was this a big security flaw? A mere oversight? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.
2 Comments to “Google Buzz Privacy”
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Really I think that Google Buzz’s submission was a little too early, especially the privacy concerns. I really think that Google’s possibly going down the same path that Windows went through around the time of Windows 2K. The latest releases and releases seem to be less thought through and I also feel that rushed in an attempt to be 1st to market, and compete with its competitors releases. The privacy issue was an issue that didn’t require a computer science degree to figure out, a very simple review session would have identified these issues. Do you think Google may have received too much credit last year?
@Jody Behel
I agree with you that Buzz’s release was too early. Google seems to have a pattern of this and I wonder when it is going to catch up with them. Google has released most of their products after another companies great success and tried to build on it. I can understand Google’s motives behind doing so, but I think that if they want to stay strong, they need to start thinking through the release of their products to make them more robust.
As far as Google receiving too much credit, I don’t think so. It was on the edge and I don’t think that anything they did (besides the Nexus One and Google Maps Navigation) was worth the excitement.