Thursday, February 18, 2010

What’s the buzz with Google Buzz?

A few days ago, Google launched the Buzz (which is really Twitter, only with a different name). Out of nowhere, a dialogue bubble icon suddenly appeared on the upper left portion of the Gmail account, which, when clicked would reveal the names of persons whom you have frequently corresponded with in the past. The purpose of this was to make it easier for Google users to follow these persons. The problem was, these names were available to the public also.

Google received a tongue-lashing because of this. Some say that this constitutes a violation of privacy, because Google had no permission from the users to post these names. And this is quite ironic given the stand Google took with regard to the attacks originating in China recently, evidently to gain access to the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.

As one writer says, “If I were working for the Iranian or the Chinese government, I would immediately dispatch my Internet geek squads to check on Google Buzz accounts for political activists and see if they have any connections that were previously unknown to the government. They can then spend months on end drawing complex social circles on the shiny blackboards inside secret police headquarters.”

I think Google was wrong when it made this kind of information available to the public. I think Google was careless, and it failed to consider the ramifications of its actions. For all its faults, however, I think Google deserves some form of commendation for immediately responding to the problem. Google did not take a lazy stroll in the park, but instantly deployed its experts into fixing the privacy settings of the Buzz.

Because of this, I think we can still trust Google.
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12th Entry
Ralph Vincent Catedral

1 comment:

Owen Ricalde said...

to be fair, ur right. google did not even ask our permission. though, like most of us, baka naman may stipulation sa terms of agreement when we accepted our gmail account. na they can add any application etc. though, bakit wala pang nagrereklamo to the effect that google would erase googlebuzz. is it because some governments are actually encouraging them to do this? hehe. conspiracy thinking lang.