The Electronic Privacy Information Center has filed an official complaint with the Federal Trade Commission regarding a privacy matter related to Google Buzz.
Buzz was designed to immediately create friends lists for users based on their most e-mailed contacts, but Google changed it after receiving a large volume of complaints.
"This is a significant breach of consumers' expectations of privacy," said Marc Rotenberg, EPIC Executive Director, in a statement. "Google should not be allowed to push users' personal information into a social network they never requested."
Due to the numerous consumer complaints regarding privacy, Google plans to listen to additional consumer comments on the matter. The company included a change that directs users to agree to activate Buzz, even though all Gmail accounts automatically have a Buzz link.
EPIC believes Buzz still poses a privacy threat since Google automatically signs each Gmail user up for the service. The group believes Google should offer an "opt-in" that gives Gmail users the option for signing up for the social networking service. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) also said Google should implement an opt-in feature, so that Gmail users have the ability to control Buzz from the very beginning.
Buzz users also have the ability to disable Buzz -- and Google is now thinking about launching an independent version of the social networking service.
I agree with EPIC's stance on this matter, and I hope Google understands that privacy issues will always be defended by users. The company also was met with immediate criticism of its Chrome Web browser, which forced Google to change the EULA. Early versions of Chrome were automatically saving user history and "phoning home", which was uncovered by early users and bloggers.
