Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Google apologises for Buzz flaws


Well, it was about time they did, as the privacy flaws of Goggle Buzz are really serious. Here's a part of the article from BBC about it:

Google has admitted to BBC News that testing of its controversial social network Buzz was insufficient.
The firm has had to make a series of changes to the service after a ferocious backlash from users concerned about intrusions of privacy.
"We've been testing Buzz internally at Google for a while. Of course, getting feedback from 20,000 Googlers isn't quite the same as letting Gmail users play with Buzz in the wild."
He acknowledged that many of the networks "tens of millions" of users were "rightfully upset" and that the firm was "very, very sorry".
"We know we need to improve things."
Privacy priorities
Buzz was launched on 9 February. The service, which is integrated with Gmail, allows users to post status updates, share content and read and comment on friends' posts.
One problem that immediately caused concern was Google's decision to automatically give users a ready-made circle of friends based on the people they most frequently e-mailed.
Mr Jackson told BBC News that the decision to create these automatic lists was borne out of the idea that Google "wanted to provide a great user experience straight out of the box". Unless users changed settings in their profile, this list could automatically be made public, allowing anyone to see who a user corresponded with most frequently.
But privacy experts immediately pointed out this could cause problems for journalists, businesses or even people having an illicit affair.
Asked if the Google founders - Larry Page and Sergey Brin - or any of the executive team would issue an apology for breaching their user's trust, a Google spokesperson said: "Google has apologised - we're very sorry for the concern we caused."

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