After facing criticism and a lawsuit or two involving its privacy policies, Facebook can at least tell its critics that it’s better than Google Buzz. By being part of the new Gmail social-networking service unveiled this week by the search giant, users are automatically exposing their Google profile, including their e-mail, to everyone who can do a Google search.
And if that’s not bad enough, the default setting allows anyone who connects with you to see your list of contacts. You can disable that setting, but then those contacts won’t be accessible for sharing photos, links and daily witty updates.
Google Buzz is essentially a hybrid of Twitter and Facebook, with the innovation that it makes use of an existing network. If you have Gmail, you don’t have to join Buzz — you’re already on. By finding a small-print link on the bottom of your inbox, you can opt to “turn off Buzz.”
Sharon Udasin, 25, a New York-based writer and Gmail user since 2005, took immediately to Buzz, but with some reservations.
“As a young journalist, I like to have every form of online social networking at my fingertips at all times, and am excited to see how Buzz goes,” she said. “My concern with Buzz, however, is that there is only an ‘on and off’ option, rather than a customizable scale of privacy settings.”
After much criticism about its privacy settings, Facebook in December allowed users to be more selective about what information can be seen by the general public, within the system, and via Internet searches.
When clicking on Buzz, which now appears directly under the inbox link, Gmail users may find that Buzz users are already following them, and then have the chance to modify their profile. By unchecking a box, users can keep the list of people who are…