Fuck you, Google
I use my private Gmail account to email my boyfriend and my mother.
There’s a BIG drop-off between them and my other “most frequent” contacts.
You know who my third most frequent contact is?
My abusive ex-husband.
Which is why it’s SO EXCITING, Google, that you AUTOMATICALLY allowed all my most frequent contacts access to my Reader, including all the comments I’ve made on Reader items, usually shared with my boyfriend, who I had NO REASON to hide my current location or workplace from, and never did.
My other most frequent contacts? Other friends of Flint’s.
Oh, also, people who email my ANONYMOUS blog account, which gets forwarded to my personal account. They are frequent contacts as well. Most of them, they are nice people. Some of them are probably nice but a little unbalanced and scary. A minority of them — but the minority that emails me the most, thus becoming FREQUENT — are psychotic men who think I deserve to be raped because I keep a blog about how I do not deserve to be raped, and this apparently causes the Hulk rage.
I can’t block these people, because I never made a Google profile or Buzz profile, due to privacy concerns (apparently and resoundingly founded!). Which doesn’t matter anyway, because every time I do block them, they are following me again in an hour. I’m hoping that they, like me, do not realize and are not intentionally following me, but that’s the optimistic half of the glass. My pessimistic half is of the abyss, and it is staring back at you with a redolent stink-eye.
Oh, yes, I suppose I could opt out of Buzz — which I did when it was introduced, though that apparently has no effect on whether or not I am now using Buzz — but as soon as I did that, all sorts of new people were following me on my Reader! People I couldn’t block, because I am not on Buzz!
Fuck you, Google. My privacy concerns are not trite. They are linked to my actual physical safety, and I will now have to spend the next few days maintaining that safety by continually knocking down followers as they pop up. A few days is how long I expect it will take before you either knock this shit off, or I delete every Google account I have ever had and use Bing out of fucking spite.
Fuck you, Google. You have destroyed over ten years of my goodwill and adoration, just so you could try and out-MySpace MySpace.
PREACH IT. It did this to me, too. I haven’t had the followers-reappearing problem in Reader that you describe (yet), but boy, wasn’t I just pleased as punch to see people I’d unfollowed or blocked added back in!
I clicked the “disable buzz” link at the bottom of Gmail the minute I found it, but does that mean that to really block people, I need to re-enable it, break all the chains it’s trying to set up for me, and THEN disable it again? Shit.
Not to be stalker-y, but I will be following this thread to see what suggestions pop up for thwarting this mess. Buzz = EVIL.
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This is the second post I’ve seen today from someone in a similar position.
The other person seems to have solved it for themself (not saying this makes everything okay, just if it helps you until Google gets their A into G and fixes the damn thing) — to paraphrase the relevant stuff from what was in a locked post:
She managed to create her profile by accident, she thinks by trying to create a post (counterintuitive much?) and then making it private – this apparently created the profile, and then she could go into it and turn off the setting that shows your contact list to everyone.
She also linked to this article about Buzz and privacy.
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I’m not sure, but I think I’ve killed it: I opened my Gmail in its own tab–if you read Gmail in iGoogle, do “launch full application” from that–and (sigh) clicked “turn on Buzz,” from which I unfollowed/blocked the some-two-dozen people Buzz had so helpfully connected me to.
Then, I found where Buzz connects your other applications like Reader and Picasa, and clicked their “disable” links, so they’d shun Buzz like the filthy feral zombie that it is.
Then I disabled Buzz entirely. That felt . . . good.
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Yes. Exactly. Christ, Google: FAIL.
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It’s really awful, isn’t it?!
There’s some slight improvement now that they’ve realized what they’ve done.
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You can change your Reader sharing settings so they are not Public.
I think these settings in Reader were there pre-Buzz, but I’m uncertain.
Also, since I’m guessing you have no intention of using Buzz, you should likely remove Reader and the other services from Connected Sites in Buzz. (I think Reader is added to Buzz by default.) Just clicking the “turn off buzz” at the bottom of GMail may not be enough.
Doing this should protect your Reader content.
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I posted about it on the Buzz help forums (not naming your name or your blog) and they gave me this link:
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/millions-of-buzz-users-and-improvements.html
I assume you’ve seen it, so, not too helpful.
This is really disappointing.
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Wow, uh, I’m sorry? This was a giant goof on Google’s part. You situation is just one of many. Journalists who have had their anonymous sources outed as part of their gmail contacts. Government sources that talked to Iranian protestors, who have now been outed for full view to the Iranian government. It’s not good. It was not wise.
I have a hard time believing that they really meant ill by this. But I have an easy time believing that a bunch of Google engineers excitedly threw the switch on this without really thinking about anything more than the technological implications.
Of course, the crazy thing is: what they did is really basically exactly what Facebook already does. It’s just that that’s not saying much…
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This may be stupidly obvious, but do you have your Reader share setting on “protected”? The default is “public.” I’m walking through this with a friend who uses all these features more than I, and she thinks you should be able to block unwanted folks from seeing your Reader shared stuff and comments just by adjusting to “protected” and making a group just for your boyfriend and ticking that one box so that only he can see.
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Yes. I can’t say it any better than just yes. THESE are the issues that can get subsumed in generalities when we talk about privacy concerns, and these are the issues that I desperately wish Google had fucking thought of at all when choosing to roll out Buzz in this way. I have the privilege of just being annoyed at some of Google’s choices, rather than having to feel fear. Maybe most of Google’s staff share that privilege.
But it’s a privilege, not a universally shared reality.
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Dear god.
I’d read about this in a privacy blog, but I didn’t quite get that this could affect people who don’t use Buzz at all.
#googleFAIL.
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You’ve disabled Buzz, that’s a good first step.
If you haven’t already, step two is to edit your Google profile so that anything public is the way you want. You can pare it down to name only (or pseudonym), or not have it public at all.
Then, in Google Reader’s Sharing Settings, you can decide if you really want to share your Reader items publicly, or just with a select set of your Google Contacts.
You can make special lists of contacts here:
(Contacts is also available in GMail in the left column)
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I believe this article may assist you, good luck.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10451703-2.html
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Harriet, are you actually sharing items? I also thought people had instant access to my Reader, but they don’t – just whatever I chose to share with them, by marking ‘share’ at the bottom of each post. You can also block your shares from the public, meaning you would have to specifically specify who could see what you shared.
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Yes, yes, yes.
I think my new policy on Google Reader is that I will only share posts like this, which explain what the fuck is wrong with this situation, in case people a) don’t know, or b) are following me without meaning to, because Buzz is apparently sending out “follow” requests to everyone in the universe. Which means Buzz may be creating the impression, to those malevolent folks who e-mail you a lot, that you WANT them following you.
Which, um.
Criminy.
“Fuck Google” indeed.
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This sort of stuff really annoys me about social software. Not even the fact that you can potentially have your information more exposed than you expected, but the fact that the people in charge can unilaterally change the level of exposure, radically and with no warning. It’s as if your landlord decided to upgrade all the walls in your apartment to clear ones. While you were in the shower. What’s worse is that the people making the decisions don’t even see that there’s any sort of problem here, because they’re rich white boys from Mountain View and refuse to look past their own social context to see that for some people, this sort of thing is more than just an annoyance, it can be downright dangerous.
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You have a valid reason to be pissed alright and I’m sure that your complaint won’t make it to the top of Googles search for pissed off Google customers. I’m sure they’ll hide your valid complaint while they keep pissing on our leg and telling us it’s raining.
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Hey, this sucks. The first thing you should do is look over and turn your Reader’s sharing to “protected” instead of “public”. should link directly there if you’re logged in. I’m not sure if that’ll stop people from following you, but it should stop them from seeing anything you share. (And I hope any comments you make since those are only visible through shared items, but it doesn’t say that explicitly. This UI sucks.)
I also don’t know if the people who are now “following” you can see your email address. I suspect not, given how hard it is for people to find _my_ email address from my buzzes, even though I’ve made everything public that I can. They _can_ see the name you’ve attached to your gmail account, which you can change (I think!) at . Except that looks remarkably like the profile you didn’t create, so it might not work.
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I didn’t know where to post this, but I read this and thought you might be interested in it: http://yesmeansyesblog.wordpress.com/2010/02/11/no-place-to-tell-this-tale/
I don’t comment often but I do read your blog and appreciate it. I am a survivor.
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This may be of assistance in your efforts to get rid of buzz
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This is truly awful. I tried out Buzz myself and found it frustrating and largely pointless, but your situation is rather worse.
I guess ultimately the problem is that companies like Google feed on information about you and want to get and link up as much as they can.
Do you mind me trying to get this post more attention from the Interweb? It’s a very good example of why privacy matters.
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They really fucked up. I’ve been a fan of Google for years but I do not understand why more people have not voiced their opinion on this.
A simple question or prompt would have completely changed the situation. I email my friends and families, but occasionally my enemies. Thanks a lot Google, I wont last the year!
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Wow. I must admit that some of these points here do definitely highlight Buzz being too invasive. I don’t entirely mind the concept, but I have found the implementation to be distracting. When I open GMail, I want to only open GMail. That’s why I leave facebook and twitter at home for the most part. Buzz is forcing itself in my face, and I haven’t seen anything on the interface that makes it immediately obvious on how one can make Buzz less intrusive.
Hope that you get things there sorted, though! Definitely sounds like you could do with a little less worry in your life!
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I’m just dumbfounded that they should be this moronically stupid.
Do they not have a privacy and abuse team linked to their legal department or something that should tick everything off before it goes live? How much money do they earn?
I cannot believe you’re having to go through this and christ knows how many other women too. It’s genuinely scary. I’ve switched everything off (tbh I had anyway, all way too intrusive) and am wondering if I should find myself a completely different email client.
My God, Google, I really hope you’re reading this post and comments. You guys are the biggest bunch of fucking idiots. And to think you’ve just pissed all that China goodwill down the drain.
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…..whoooops, I probably should’ve read this before I re-clicked “follow” on the little notification that popped up this morning saying you were following me… Google’s following system confuses the crap out of me.
Apologies for the potential-sketchy.
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Thanks for posting about this. I’ve investigated Google Buzz after reading your post, and now it looks sinister instead of merely annoying.
Do you mind if I link to this post on the Google help forum for Buzz as an example of privacy concerns?
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Did that and did that. Starting it all off, I never enabled Buzz in the first place, but it apparently gained sentience and enabled itself.
New followers kept popping up anyway, and my connected sites kept reconnecting.
It’s been a fascinating night of madness.
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The fascinating thing is, new followers popped up after I disabled Buzz, and I couldn’t make them unfollow me because I hadn’t enabled Buzz!
Additionally, I have never made a Google profile, specifically because I had privacy concerns. So I can’t access any of these exciting privacy features without making a profile that invades my privacy.
Not to take it out on you. I know you’re trying to help, and the comments people are leaving that are trying to help are going to be very useful to other people attempting to shut this down. But this is all stuff that should have been taken care of when I didn’t enable Buzz in the first place, instead of a mad rush after the fact to find out who has had access to all my information for the last day or two.
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I share items with my boyfriend. My Reader was set to be private and only shared with my boyfriend. Then followers started popping up without my permission or approval, and for an unknown period of time, all my followers had access to all my shared items, some of which contained sensitive information, such as:
“Ha ha look at this webcomic, it reminds me of (current place of employment)”
I’ve gone through my Reader settings, and they were never enabled to become public, but followers kept popping up anyway. I’ve had to click through and unfollow every new follower as they arrive, which I can only do if I enable Buzz, which I never wanted to be on in the first place.
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In the most genuinely unpatronizing and non-condescending way possible, good for you Fugitvus!
I’m tired of ‘the pace of technology change’ being used as an excuse by companies to launch stuff which simply doesn’t work properly and I sincerely hope your views are taken seriously.
This has developed into a real safety concern for other like Fugitvus. Heard of grooming anyone?
In what other walk of life are companies allowed to get away with half-arsed services the way ‘beta’ projects do.
Google do your job properly, take this issue seriously and THINK about the people who make you what you are. DON’T become Microsoft and take them for granted… unless of course you don’t give a toss. In which case, enjoy your profits and I hope a stock market scandal crushes you.
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I knew you weren’t being creepy, but you did provide me a fascinating look into what was happening. Because you popped up as a follower after I had 1) deleted all my followers, 2) checked and double-checked and triple-checked that my Reader settings were private, and 3) disabled Buzz, thus letting me know that following all those steps does not actually protect my privacy. And then, of course, I couldn’t make you unfollow me without turning Buzz back on.
So, actually, you kind of did me a service by popping up so suddenly — I would’ve naively thought it had all been taken care of otherwise.
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Well, glad to be of (maddening, frustrating) service. If it helps your troubleshooting, like I said, me following you came as a result of google hitting me with a notification that you were requesting to follow me.
Judging by the fact that you were busily trying to shut off and block everything, I’m guessing that wasn’t intentional or desirable on your part. Which means google isn’t just letting people follow you, they’re out there sending requests on your behalf without your permission.
What the fuck?
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Actually…wait. This blogpost predates the part where I even clicked that….
Holy shit, I have no idea what’s even going on. I have stared into the depths of google and gone mad.
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Google didn’t think the implications of this through, did they? Just a bunch of (probably male) geeks in the room who masturbated to the idea of instant connections branching all over the world, and didn’t consider how actual real people might be affected by it. It’s truly stupid not to consider potential for abuse and stalking through Buzz when developing the service.
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Well said.
Buzz is #fail
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I did a blog post myself on how much Google are drilling themselves into the ground with a fierce determination to stop being brilliant at a few things (like search, or basic email) and now just being mediocre at a million different things. How does a business who’s mission statement is to “sort” the web noise into meaningful, personalised content put out a phone and try to be a social network?
They’re losing the people’s trust. It’s no wonder Larry Paige has been so quiet in the last 2 years… this seems like it’s all Sergei and Eric Schmidts work.
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Because I don’t bother to read the comments above me, I thought you’d like to know that you can set your Reader to “protected.” See how helpful I am?!
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I imagine that my friends who work for Google will be pissed off if they read this comment, but: you have to understand that Google really does drink the kool-aid. They really are convinced that when they do thoughtless, self-serving shit that it’s OK because we’re not evil! and hey, we were just trying to help!, so if it were self-serving and thoughtless shit if, oh Microsoft did it, it’s transformed from shit into gold by the magic of Google’s Don’t Be Evil alchemy.
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I haven’t had this issue that I know of…but I have had Google link my YouTube account with my gmail account where everytime I logged into gmail I was logged into YouTube even though, like you, my gmail is private and was never connected to YT. Not even sure how they knew to connect it actually… Now it makes me wonder if I really want to continue using Gmail if they Google is going to be like Facebook and just share everything with everybody.
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The irony of all this is that Google’s motto is, “Don’t Be Evil.” Seriously.
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Send Google a cease-and-desist letter and by all means publish it. We don’t mind you using swear words.
Never trusted Google for email, although I was one of the first using a Gmail accounts in Italy. Privacy, as many rights, cannot be given away for convenience and expedience.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I am fully supportive.
Cheers
Carlo
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Google seem to think your contacts are their IP, they opt you into a similar thing on YouTube and god knows what else.
“Do no evil” lost any meaning some time ago.
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I have always <3'd Google, but just recently these gaffs have started to make me wonder.
I got an iPhone a couple of months ago and set it up with Google Sync so that my contacts, calendar and email are synced. Suddenly my real name (which I guard relatively closely just because I think it is sensible to do so) was popping up all over mailing lists.
I realised that everytime I replied to an email via my iPhone (and therefore Google Sync) it was pulling my real name from my google account, even though the "Display my full name so I can be found in search" checkbox was unselected.
So yeah, Google Sync promptly ignores that checkbox. I'm not sure if it still does, I reported the bug but haven't heard anything since. I've just removed all my details from Google as they've proved themselves untrustworthy.
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I guess I’m lucky, so far – I’ve scoured all of the settings for both of my (admittedly pseudonymous) Google profiles, and I’ve seen no traces of Buzz anywhere as yet.
However, you do raise some rather frightening concerns, especially given your experiences – for some people, it may simply be an annoyance, but for others this Google Buzz fiasco may well be a matter of life and death.
I hope that your luck holds, and that this doesn’t cause any trouble for you.
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I just came upon your blog because there was a link that said “Fuck you, Google” on popurls.com. I couldn’t agree with you more. Thankfully I found the button to at least turn Buzz off. I’ll gladly bookmark your blog now, well said!
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Google really did not think this one through when they launched Buzz on the unsuspecting public. What grates my carrot is the auto-follow thing as well as the fact that everything about you is public by default (you have to specifically go in afterwards to make it private). NOT cool.
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Rich white boys? Well, that’s not both sexist and racist, is it?
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I recently deleted my Facebook account because of their diddling around with privacy settings. It’s a shame Google didn’t think this through. I like Buzz myself but I don’t think anyone should be able to “follow” (hello?!) me without consent.
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Thumbs up for the great post
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Start the lawsult rolling NOW. Seriously.
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I love everything about google EXCEPT their add everyone bs. I really hate that. When I read it’s policy before signing up I saw that and backed out. Now so glad I did. Wake up google. Fix this asap.
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The real solution is to move your accounts to a provider where you have a relationship where they’re actually accountable to you. Your ISP is a good example. They provide email as part of your account, you pay them. Part of that is being directly accountable to you for what they do with your data.
Google uses the data you provide them in whatever way they see fit. GMail has always exposed your private data to advertisers in order to display adsense to you.
Terms of Service matter. Without reading what they are, you’re always going to be vulnerable to this. Most people don’t give two shits about trading away their private information for a free service. If it matters, them move to a service that you pay for and can hold accountable when they make transgressions like this one.
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ANOTHER example of “Google’s brilliant innovation” without second thought to the crap they’re churning out. BUZZ is a piece of crap and Google should be sued for the many, many, many violations of privacy they just created.
Idiots.
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I’m deleting each and every one of my gmail account; I’m also telling all my friends that I will only email them at their non-gmail addy.
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Holy shit, I feel bad for you… Google has made a major blunder.
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It’s awesome to find people that understand the reason to have privacy. There seems to be a lot of people eating the “I have nothing to hide, who needs privacy?” bullshit.
People seem to forget that they live in a real world, and that people can actually harm you. There’s shit that needs to be private, specially outside of the US where on some cities life is worth a pair of shoes and kidnapping is an every day event for people.
Awesome Fuck you google post.
Here are some of my concerns about Google lately, which keeps accelerating week by week in product offering and company purchasing, this is getting too scary.
http://www.gubatron.com/blog/2009/12/14/the-internet-is-becoming-the-googlenet/
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I had an (differently) abusive ex who literally stole my children, sued me five times, got me fired from 3 different jobs, and generally destroyed my life over 7 years. Not physical abuse, but mental, legal, and emotional abuse involving two kids. Yes I’m a male, but the effect was and is still devastating.
This whole “friend” concept on Facebook and Twitter – this idea that being open totally public is safe… it only works when there is not a fucking psycho out there working to harm you. And they DO exist. Its a naive openness that works when practiced from the beginning – not all of us a middle generation have that luxury.
I have Google accounts because many Google services required them early on – and their services work well, and interactions with other people required it. I’ve **never** used Google for email communications or with any real personal data for EXACTLY this reason.
Culture comes from the top, Eric – I’m talking to you, Eric Schmidt. These real people who use your service rely on your actions and the culture you create. If you only make business decisions to support your (financially) paying customers, the advertisers, then Google becomes much worse than the credit reporting agencies – at least their privacy skullfuckery is regulated.
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It sounds to me that Google may have jumped the gun on this deployment and dropped the ball on privacy.
It doesn’t affect me because all of my google accounts were semi-public already and everything private was set to be so. But I sympathize with your situation, it sounds frightening and upsetting.
But it may be that things are not quite as bad as you suspect. I believe the only things people can see are things that (a) were already public in your Reader account or (b) which you can see showing up on the “Buzz” page.
I connected my blog and my most recent entry popped up on that page. Prior to it appearing, it wasn’t in Buzz. I believe the people following me (and I have a bunch of random follows from people not in my contacts at all) only see/get notices about things that are imported into Buzz.
So if your Reader is private and no random person (logged into Google or not) can see your posts and comments by going directly to your Reader page and you’ve disabled Buzz, I’m fairly sure your followers are not seeing anything at all, aside from your the name and e-mail address you have entered into GMail.
Nothing I’ve marked private has shown up in Buzz (though I can’t really test to see if following gives me any other permissions on others’ accounts I wouldn’t have had before).
I may be wrong, because it’s certainly possible this release is fraught with bugs. But my observations as someone checking this out lead me to believe that your privacy has not been violated to the degree you are rightly worried about.
Now, it shouldn’t have been violated at ALL and you shouldn’t be having to go through this or worry about it. If I were you I’d be screaming mad. But it may not be as bad as it looks and if that’s the case I’m sure it will be a bit of a relief, although it still won’t be any excuse for Google’s mistakes here.
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Just wondering why you didn’t just create a new gmail account since you only use it to talk to your boyfriend and your mom. Let the old one sit and rot. Throw it and your idiot ex into internet history.
Google screwed up so bad with Buzz. I sure as hell never wanted it either! You’re right, they’re trying to become Myspace. Actually I think they’re trying to become the next AOL now that Google is trying to roll out their own fiber.
Fuck you, Google. Srsly.
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I just want to tell you your post is on top on hacker news – http://news.ycombinator.com/
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Since you two know each other, I would ask if Belial can see anything of Harriet’s in Buzz. Can you see any Google Reader posts or comments? Location? Are you getting any notifications? Do you see any “more” of Harriet’s content than what you can see when you go into your Google Contacts?
That might indicate how truly serious this is — I don’t mean to say it’s not serious if Belial can’t see anything — but if I were you I’d want to know exactly how much of my information had become available, if any. And if nothing had really gone out, I’d still be mad and annoyed with Buzz, but relieved, too.
What you discover will help others who have similar concerns.
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Um, this *really* concerns me. I’m aware my online presence is more than most people normally share with strangers, but it’s part of my job, and I am able to control who sees how much. It’s a fine balance, and I certainly don’t want Google tipping the scales.
Is there any way to know how much others can see if you’re not a Buzz user? I never even took it for a test spin, and I opted out of Buzz updates in the Inbox footer link.
I’ve searched online to no avail, lots of advice for opting out after the fact out there. (Although according to the post doesn’t sound like a 100% opt out.)
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I moved Buzz and the Buzz contacts to another e-mail account I have for news and other subscriptions…
http://mechpoe.blogspot.com/2009/12/social-rings-simple-method-for.html
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Judging by how buzz works, if you have those reader settings marked as private, or shared only to your boyfriend, they might still be private, even though you have followers. Your followers would see anything in future you marked as public, but not the stuff marked as private. At least, that seems to be what would make sense. (Though ‘sense’ might have nothing to do with how they treat this function)
Do you have a friend who could subscribe to you (who doesn’t have access to your reader) and tell you if s/he sees anything, just so you can judge how much damage may have been done?
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Oh! You can help in a way I can’t. I don’t know what Buzz actually shared for harriet, but I can’t look to find out because it isn’t suggesting I follow her. I believe “follow” just means you see whatever she posts publicly, but not that she’s actually posted anything you can see. Could you actually see any posts from Harriet once you followed her? If you could, that’s a huge bug. If not, buzz didn’t actually make anything public that Harriet didn’t want; it just failed at making that clear.
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One might say this marks 2 Google fail whales in less than a month…
Check out this post about Google’s failure with Youtube Rentals…
bit.ly/cHsv1W
thanks for spreading awareness about buzz…your story really hits home.
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GOOGLE is losing my trust.
Imagine…. one brain fart from google and all of my privacy could be gone. This one wasn’t the end of the world… but what’s next?
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Good gods, this is awful.
Google have absolutely failed here, and it’s annoying for most of us, but appalling that you (and probably others) have had your personal safety put at risk.
I’m having serious thoughts of moving my various accounts over elsewhere. It would be a huge hassle, but unless they chuck Buzz first and recognise how much good-will they’ve lost here.
All the best of luck with sorting this out at your end. Am thinking of you.
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You have expressed my anger with this.
I am generally not a “there ought to be a law” type, but…
How the heck could one phrase it, to protect us from arbitrary, random changes?
“Thou shalt be Opt-In”
Hopefully this incident will generate a lot more interest in privacy issues.
This is not an innocent mistake by Google. This was done by design, a conscious decision to generate usage numbers,
their great success now at the top of techmeme.
Millions of users! Aren’t we great success!!
Don’t know what good it will do, but I sent off emails to my congress people.
Some cages need some serious rattling.
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Can confirm whatever you do to turn Buzz off, it comes back . . .
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Bing and Clusty are both good search engine choices, if you decide to ditch the Google.
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THANK YOU. I have the exact same deal going on with a public email address being forwarded to a private Gmail address which is now apparently NOT SO GODDAMNED PRIVATE ANYMORE. When I first saw the screaming about Google Buzz yesterday morning I logged in to try to figure out how to opt out, and found that I already had “new followers” on Buzz, fully 50% of which were names I didn’t recognize at all.
I am trying to keep some distance between me and the INTERNET FULL OF CRAZY PEOPLE and Google is trying not to let me. Appreciate that. No really… thanks.
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I think Buzz is a sign of Google’s decline, when a company like Google tries to diversify this way, it just goes on to prove that they are feeling the heat!
I hope Google will stop being evil and actually practice that which they preach “dont be evil”.
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Wow… sounds awful. Your privacy concerns are very real. Unfortunately today’s internet climate is all about sharing information and even geo-location.
I suggest using other providers for your email and RSS feeds, and give up web-based applications if you can.
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wow. so sorry this is happening to you. everyone appreciates you taking the time to write about it though – so thanks for that.
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Also, here is how to delete your Google accounts:
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…and hey, your blog is actually quite good.
Even that, according to your posts, I am a racist, misogynist and elitist. But hey, that’s how life is.
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Looks like I wasn’t the only one
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THANK YOU for posting this. Thank you.
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Install an e-mail client (like Mozilla Thunderbird, it’s free) and use the Accounts menu to set up a new Disconnected IMAP account. The details you will need can be found in the GMail Help section. Subscribe to all your folders except Spam and Trash. Now hit “check for new mail”, and go and do something less dull, as this will cause the client to download everything in your GMail folders to a cache on your local hard disk.
If you’ve been using GMail for a while you will probably want to check you have enough disk space first (and if it’s a laptop, consider going somewhere with a really fast connection).
You can now tell Google to fuck off and hook up another e-mail provider.
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Reader is a tool for following RSS feeds. It’s really unclear to me why I had to jump through hoops to make reading my selection of RSS feeds a private activity (& I am still not sure it worked). The assumption that we want to share and follow and be followed in every aspect of what we do online is annoying for some of us, dangerous for others.
I really like Gmail, and I really like Reader, and I really like a lot of things Google has built, but the creep factor of using them is just going through the roof. (& now they want to sell me a phone?)
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They’re asking for a class-action lawsuit.
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Brave!
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I honestly don’t mean to be an ass or anything because I can understand how it might have confused you at the beginning, but on the first clickthrough screen as well as multiple times on the screen that you first come to when you sign up for Buzz, it alerts you that the people who contact you most have been
Most people who correspond with others do not have to deal with stalkers. You, unfortunately, are an aberration from that norm. Google brought Buzz out with the majority in mind – those of us who contact and are contacted by people that we interact normally in real life with.
As someone who has to deal with stalkers and potentially dangerous breaches of privacy, you may have wanted to take extra precautions when signing up for your account – precautions such as checking your contact list quickly before posting additional contact and verifying what you did have shared on your Google account.
In addition, Google allows you to decide what is shared on Buzz and what is not. Anything that is linked to your Google Profile (which is already public) can be linked to your Buzz account. if there was information in your Google Reader account that could put you into danger, connecting it may have not been a good idea. That said, the notes and “likes” from Google reader that you post have most likely been publicly available since before you signed up with Buzz.
Again, sorry about your situation, but everybody here seems to be freaking out without actually knowing what they’re talking about. They act like there is no option to opt-out and no warning that you have been auto-added to the list of others when it’s actually very clear what’s going on.
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I agree with the privacy concerns & outrage voiced here, so I won’t repeat what’s already been said. I’m pretty astounded that they are doing this, and I honestly wonder if the stunt they pulled is legally actionable.
In the meantime, I’ve found a couple pages that explain ways to turn off the buzz stuff. In short, apparently you need to turn it back on for a minute to get at certain controls, delete certain things, block others, and THEN turn it off entirely. Yeah, I’m baffled too, and lacking confidence they won’t find other ways of fouling this thing up again. And I’m lucky I don’t have any danger anticipated as the consequence of the wrong person seeing who I’m in touch with.
Here are the articles that contain instructions, explained in different ways. I hope this helps a little. Be safe.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10451703-2.html
http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/2010/02/12/google-walks-into-privacy-buzz-saw/
http://www.scotxblog.com/legal-tech/gmails-turn-off-buzz-still-does-not-turn-off-buzz-heres-how-to-really-do-it/
http://www.businessinsider.com/warning-google-buzz-has-a-huge-privacy-flaw-2010-2#or-just-scroll-to-the-bottom-of-the-page-and-turn-buzz-off-4
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wow, your blog posting definitely has the twitter mojo today! I had four people retweet this URL to me.
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Even if they follow you, they can’t see your shared items, if you configured your privacy settings correctly (set protected mode and allowed only your boyfriend to be a viewer).
Also, your followers does not see your email address. So you have nothing to worry about.
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Bing is better anyway. Go to Bing!
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I have a similar concern — crazy ex convicted of a felony after I left him. The last thing I want is for him or any of his family to have any access to me. I’m de-Googling my life now. It’s too bad; Google makes great products and I find them incredibly useful. But I refuse to accept the idea that to participate online I must sacrifice every shred of my privacy.
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Yep, add me to the list of people whose ex-husband was top on the list. Ridiculous.
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well-stated, although i’m so sorry you’ve had to state it in the first place. google buzz is a nauseating invasion of – no, removal of – any semblance of privacy that we have come to utilize and respect about our own private email accounts.
i am thinking of you, and hoping that you are feeling safe and secure, and crossing my fingers for all of our sakes that someone at google wakes the fuck up. this sucks.
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Total agreement. Buzz is like a game of Space Invaders that Google unleashed on its users. Email contacts are descending left and right and you need to hit “Block” before they hit you.
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Google services have never been about privacy protection. Anything you write and create there is public and due to their confusing navigation it’s nearly impossible to find out where to turn off this and that privacy option.
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Woah, that’s intense. Didn’t see that one coming. You outed the biggest company on the planet – right on!
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I use my private Gmail account to . . . .
You already lost me. What is a “private Gmail account,” and how would you keep Google from finding out about it?
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The funny thing is, they want us to store even more of our personal data in their “cloud” – so that we can access it from everywhere.
And everyone else apparently as well.
This lack of privacy and Google not caring much about it is inexcusable.
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Go to the bottom of your gmail page, click “turn off buzz” problem solved. Also, you can now block people, and hid your lists.
I agree, the initial launch was a major fuck up. They have offered better privacy since then though.
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Fortunately, it is possible to block people on gReader without using buzz.
Try this:
If that link doesn’t work, click on the tiny sharing settings link in gReader’s left column below the People You Follow section.
Hope that helps
FTR, it was a dumb move for Google to make the same mistake with Buzz they made with gReader when they first introduced sharing (assuming someone you email is someone you care about).
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I had all of my shared items set to “shared publicly”. Obviously, my followers and anyone going to my public profile could see this.
As a test, I changed this to “share privately” with a group. After this, my google profile no longer showed teh shared items.
I asked one of my followers to check… he too, couldn’t see my shared items.
So, as long as you were set to Share Private, I don’t believe your follows would have seen anything.
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Okay, now I’m just plain scared.
Just found Google Buzz on my account, glanced to what it was, and found a former “flirtation” from another social media site. Surprise! This man no longer had my info, at least as far as I knew, but there he was. While he’s not a stalker, per se, and I do not fear him, I did in fact de-friend him on all my accounts. I had very good reasons for this.
I have not asked for, nor have I enabled this Buzz on Google. I didn’t even know what it was till your blog URL was posted on Twitter today. I will retweet it. And then some.
Once I’m calmer, I plan to go back and read the rest of these posts. Right now I’m speechless – and sending up a prayer for your safety.
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SUE THEM
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Update: Google listened to the users concerns and pushed an update yesterday which let users choose if they want to include the list of the people they follow on their profile or not.
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Every Developer of social software should read that CAREFULLY – not because its about Google buzz (doesnt matter what social software), but because its a great real live example of what may happen, if you try to create a TRANSPARENT, OPEN system, but the access rights are not transparent … and badly manageable!
More: http://ex.colayer.com/SPOT_sectionprivacyt
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I think those spurious “followers” couldn’t actually see anything, if everything you shared in Reader was marked as private. It’s possible can have a mix of private and public parts of reader; those “followers” should only have been able to see anything that you had marked as public.
I agree that it’s a huge privacy fail on Google’s part, but actually think you’re OK here.
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Not to put too fine a point on it but Facebook? Not the same as email! I assume my email is private, I know my facebook updates are not (duh, that is the point). Which is why dicking about with my email and making it facebook-like WITHOUT ASKING MY PERMISSION is so many kinds of messed up.
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Thanks for writing this post. I completely agree with you. Fortunately, I have no specific concern about any one of my contacts seeing the others, so Google’s huge and fucking idiotic privacy infringement had no specific effect on me. But it only takes 30 seconds of reflection to realize that most people have various social and business circles and that sometimes the circles don’t mix. Their half ass apology and half ass correction only makes it worse, and they should immediately acknowledge that they made a mistake, say that they have no fucking business publishing a user’s contact list, and that they’ll never do it again, ever.
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Im so upset with google and their greedy goal to own the internet and all its information. Why cant you just focus on what you do well SEARCH!!!
Ive just completely deleted my gmail account as Ive found their whole ecosystem of services to be so disjointed, intertwined and confusing as to whats what and who can see this or that.
I give up and Im mad as hell! Google a once good service is trying to be more than I ever wanted it to be without asking should we do this?. You are greedy and without a conscience.
Bing is now my new search engine at least they dont try to own me.
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Another thing. When signing in, gmail asked me whether to try Buzz or not. I have been hearing about all these security risks, so I clicked on “nah, just take me to my inbox” or something like that. And there it was. Buzz was already integrated into my gmail, and already several people were following me. What the fuck? Why do you ask me if I want to try or not if you will just force it on me whether or not I want it. This is clearly a subject of collective lawsuit. I dont understand why all these early adopters seem to love this. Don’t be Evil? Yeah, right.
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BTW, as for the pervasive link in Gmail, it can be removed. Go into your gmail settings, click on “labels”, and then select “hide” beside the Buzz label.
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You are right to be angry. I dont understand why they are so ignorant with features. You’d think they would do better than this. I mean, privacy aside, you cant even stop buzz from going to your inbox. Isnt that an obvious feature to include??? a fuckin checkbox that says “dont email me every time”? I guess not… god damn it. They are so powerful and we have HUGE faith in them, you know, overall, they should mind their e-manners better.
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I had a really hard time figuring out what the hell was going on with Buzz until I realized that it hooks things up before you have agreed to have a profile at all! I had to agree to create a public profile in order to tell it to stop being public. That was so many kinds of not cool…
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Wow. Fuck Google.
Is there a userscript to rewrite any requests to “www.google.com” to “www.bing.com”? Because I seriously need that.
Fuck. Google.
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Totally there with you. Did you see this post about changes being made today about buzz privacy? Maybe they do listen.
Also see this post on SSN & Google. Scary:
http://jack-mannino.blogspot.com/2010/02/dont-search-for-your-social-security.html
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Very appreciate your posting about this. Now I can think again Google Buzz and never use.
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Sometimes seems they’re pissing on our legs and saying we should be glad that their free irrigation service is ad-funded and has no fee.
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Don’t forget to disable all kinds of “autoshare” and “connections” between accounts on YouTube.com (YouTube is another Google service, remember?). Any one of your email contacts can see your activity feed on YouTube via Reader, including videos you fav’ed, commented on, and so on.
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Frankly, if I’d had a g-mail account last month, I wouldn’t have one now.
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I’ve done some thorough investigating of Buzz this morning. As of this morning at least, I’m pretty sure that sharing of items/information/contacts/etc is actually opt-in, even though all the language used on the screen makes it look like it’s a fait accompli.
I’ve documented my explorations on my blog, and finished with privacy recommendations that seem to fit my findings.
I hope this is reassuring. I don’t think it excuses anything: even if Google just *says* it’s sharing all your stuff without your say-so but doesn’t actually do it, that’s really scary, and it’s really bad to a) lie and b) scare people.
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Don’t you have to ENABLE Buzz for all this to even happen?
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Excellent writing. My initial response was “holy fuck, they can NOT be that stupid”. So I went and checked my gmail account (which I never use, lucky me).
Yup. They’re that stupid. Holy fuck.
Thanks for writing clearly and lucidly about this, and giving a nice, unambiguous, case in which it is not merely “undesireable” to automatically distribute previously private data, but potentially fatal or at the very least incredibly dangerous. I have forwarded this to a list containing at least one moderately managerial sort who works at Google, and at least a few people who are going to be able to comprehend just how incredibly fucking stupid this is.
Take care, and here’s hoping that none of the people auto-added actually SAW anything before you got things a bit more under control.
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“It’s as if your landlord decided to upgrade all the walls in your apartment to clear ones. While you were in the shower. ”
That is priceless.
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Here’s a comment on the reddit link to this post that you might find helpful:
http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/b1bhy/google_buzz_autofollowed_a_womans_abusive_ex_who/c0kg8xp?context=1
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Much needed! Thank you! Too many companies are obliterating privacy in the competitive chase for the social media “holy grail”.
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I think you meant, “out-Facebook Facebook”
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And I thought my privacy complaints were major. Well, nowhere nearly as major as yours—since mine don’t involve my physical safety.
While Buzz is not among my Google services (and hopefully never will be), I was shocked to find pictures I never uploaded in my Picasa account, that Google had turned on my Web History after I opted out of it, that I had people following me in Reader even though I never turned on Reader, that I have Google Talk even though I don’t use Gmail and never asked for that service, that Adsense remains in my ‘products’ on my Google Account page even after I cancelled my account, and so on.
Meanwhile, stuff I have to use, they find every possible way of blocking me. I helped a friend get his deleted blog, called Social Media Consortium, back. Google says it takes 48 hours. Well, it took six months and massive obstruction on its “help” forums. That’s covered elsewhere.
Google is just another big, uncaring company now, which seemingly does not see things from the everyday person’s point of view any more. I have been cancelling my subscriptions to most Google services since the beginning of the year, leaving Search and News, and not much else.
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