Google Buzz Can Be Dangerous

The Big G wants to make your email socialable with their new product, Google Buzz. It appears that they’re going after their own piece of the Twitter and Facebook pies. Google Buzz isn’t a stand-alone application like Twitter or

Facebook however; it’s attached to your Gmail account by default, via your address book. And that’s the dangerous part.

Our address books contain contacts that we may not want our Buzz updates to go to; that one stranger you dealt with on Craigslist that one time, crazy relatives, even crazier ex-significant others, your landlord, your “serious friends”, your pastor, etc.

Buzz connects to many of our personal places on the web; email addresses, Blogger accounts, or Picasa photo sharing accounts.

Google has released some privacy fixes to address this, but they’re not default. You have to go find and configure them. Google has given you the option to opt-out. Most people won’t know to change the default settings. Instead, Google Buzz should give you the option to opt-in if you choose.

For these reasons, Google Buzz can be dangerous. Please be careful.

Do you have any questions about Google Buzz? Any tips on how to improve it’s use? Please comment!

Regards,

p.s. I use Google Buzz, and will likely continue to do so. It’s still fun, you just need to be aware of the privacy implications!