It’s Thursday night and I finally decide to stop ignoring this “Buzz” thing Gmail keeps bothering me about. I decide to post something ironically clever — to my semi-delirious mind and two other people — and call it a night. Friday morning, I pay a little more attention to this obnoxious tab under my inbox and still can’t quite figure out exactly what I’m supposed to do with it.
Then, I notice it has automatically added followers without my approval and, although I generally like these people and would have let them follow me anyways, I would still like some say in this. Google, you are taking over the world, we get it. Google Earth keeps everyone on constant radar. And while I do enjoy having personalized ads, it really creeps me out how well you know me sometimes.
For those without a sick addiction to the many services Google provides, Google Buzz is a media sharing service that launched (sort of out of nowhere) last Tuesday. It’s Google’s response to social media and will take it one step closer to conquering all. Unless these privacy issues go being too much bad PR… but those issues probably won’t be enough to stop Genghis Khan Eric Schmidt from further expanding the empire.
But did anyone ever tell Google that you don’t always e-mail your friends? I know you wanted to be helpful and automatically have people that I e-mail follow my “Buzz” — which is fine for me because, as of now, all I really share is articles from my Google Reader — but, that could really screw a lot of people over. For example, one blogger was linked to her “abusive ex-husband” and “hostile” commenters.
Of course, Google has come back with all these wonderful privacy options, but for some it is too little too late. The service exposes you automatically and for people who value their privacy and need to keep their space personal, getting your privacy back after the fact is not enough.
It can be dangerous for students, too. With recently graduated peers losing jobs and opportunities over material posted over the net, we have to be especially careful over what we share. Getting information has never been a problem for our generation but keeping pictures, thoughts and offhand remarks out of the wrong hands is a constant concern today… and if its not, it should be. Google Buzz can be linked to Facebook and Twitter offering a constant stream for every one of your posts and updates. If your boss or professor were to follow you, it could be disastrous.
All I ask, Google, is a little warning. “Surprise, we are going to sutomatically connect you to your gmail contacts so they can see your profile and share all these wonderful things,” is not the way to keep your consumers happy. I accept your terms of service and the fact that you will use my information to bring me specialized marketing and whatever other insane and creepy things you do, but can I keep my inbox and e-mail contacts to myself?
I may be all right for now, but I fear the day you’ll go too far and I’ll have no choice but to opt out.