A group of lawmakers from the Energy and Commerce committee have officially requested that the Federal Trade Commission look into privacy concerns surrounding Google Buzz. They created a letter that was signed by eleven politicians and details the many errors that they feel Google has made with Buzz.
The writers pointed out first that while Google Buzz is a productive social media tool, it reveals too much information involuntarily. The letter indicates an incident in which a 9 year old posted a private conversation on Buzz accidentally because it was too confusing, and that a user with a suggestive name ended up on her contacts list through Buzz without her consent.
The writers also state that they were concerned by “Google’s practice of automatically using consumers’ email addresses to create contact lists for Buzz and then publically disclosing…this information online.” The lawmakers additionally expressed frustration with the difficulty it took to deactivate Buzz once users realized that their information had been exposed.
The letter did commend the actions that Google has taken to change Buzz and revamp privacy options in the service, but said that more needed to be done. The letter requests the FTC do an investigation to answer several key questions:
- How does Google plan to change their privacy policies to fit their new actions?
- How many users have opted out of Buzz since it launched?
- What extent does Buzz generate online advertising for Google?
- How will Google’s recent acquisition of Admob factor into private user information being used for advertising?
There has not yet been word from the FTC as to whether or not they will investigate the claims about Buzz.
Articles RSS