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Automatically followed by abusive ex-husband (and his friends) on Google Buzz

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Re: Automatically followed by abusive ex-husband (and his friends) on Google Buzz

#41

Post by rbanffy »

kevingadd wrote: post #3

How do you not see this coming with a feature like Buzz? Why didn't they do any sort of staged roll-out or opt-in for a feature with such obvious privacy implications? I'm stunned. Doesn't Google employ tons of lawyers, ethics experts, or people with enough common sense to spot this? Maybe it was some sort of skunk-works project that got out without sufficient oversight?

> Why didn't they do any sort of staged roll-out or opt-in

I distinctly remember to have clicked in something like "I want to use buzz" before having it enabled

Re: Automatically followed by abusive ex-husband (and his friends) on Google Buzz

#42

Post by griftah »

bad_user wrote: post #14
sailormoon wrote: post #11

I must say that this person strikes me as having "issues" and thus I think I'll wait for more information before passing judgement. I mean just look at rest of the blog. I look at that, and I do not think, "wow, that's a calm, reasonable person who is going to give me a fair and balanced description of what the problem is".

Only calm and reasonable people should be listened to? Of course she's having issues. We all do. That's how it is in the real world ;) ... and some of us are extroverts, sharing our feelings with others. But it doesn't mean that if I have a message for Fred, everybody should read it ... and normal people don't know how to protect themselves, that's why this whole trend on "public by default" taken by Google and other…

If you have a message for Fred, send it to Fred privately. Don't share it with whole world.

Re: Automatically followed by abusive ex-husband (and his friends) on Google Buzz

#43

Post by griftah »

radu_floricica wrote: post #20

I'd like a clarification from somebody who uses Reader / Picassa. Is any of the stuff that's suddenly available to following people actually private, in the sense of impossible to access? Or simply "obscure", i.e. if you know the username and look for it you can find it?

Obscure.

Re: Automatically followed by abusive ex-husband (and his friends) on Google Buzz

#44

Post by danparsonson »

rbanffy wrote: post #41
kevingadd wrote: post #3

How do you not see this coming with a feature like Buzz? Why didn't they do any sort of staged roll-out or opt-in for a feature with such obvious privacy implications? I'm stunned. Doesn't Google employ tons of lawyers, ethics experts, or people with enough common sense to spot this? Maybe it was some sort of skunk-works project that got out without sufficient oversight?

> Why didn't they do any sort of staged roll-out or opt-in I distinctly remember to have clicked in something like "I want to use buzz" before having it enabled

You get the intro page with a button at the bottom ("Sweet! Check out Buzz!") but the feature is automatically enabled.

Re: Automatically followed by abusive ex-husband (and his friends) on Google Buzz

#46

Post by jm4 »

GiraffeNecktie wrote: post #37

I think she should get a lawyer and sue Google's ass.

On what grounds do you think she could file a lawsuit and have an expectation of it going anywhere? GMail is a free service for most users. You could choose not to use or it just turn off Buzz. You don't go around suing people just because you can't figure out how to set preferences. It's not like they're acting in bad faith by deliberately making it difficult to disable.

Re: Automatically followed by abusive ex-husband (and his friends) on Google Buzz

#48

Post by DTrejo »

JulianMorrison wrote: post #18

One thing that certainly is true about this: there's no simple, obvious single place to tune all your Google privacy settings. I've found how to do it, but I had to look under cushions and behind the sofa, so to speak.

Where is it?

Re: Automatically followed by abusive ex-husband (and his friends) on Google Buzz

#49

Post by pavs »

dkersten wrote: post #39
jasonlotito wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure what the problem is. I have complete control over the privacy settings of all my accounts. After reading the post, I think the problem is the poster made a choice before this not to use the privacy features.

Google added Buzz to my account automatically and automatically added people form my contact list - some of whom I don't think should have been added - and I had to actively go and search for the privacy/remove/turn off features. If, on the other hand, Google had said "heres our new Google Buzz feature, heres how to turn it on, heres the privacy settings and heres how you can add everyone|people you talk to regularly…

>Google added Buzz to my account automatically and automatically added people form my contact list.

To the best of my knowledge they prompt you and ask you who you want to follow. This was the case for me. They don't automatically follow - unless you click the OK button.

Turning off buzz is literally one click away at the bottom of the screen. I know because I used it.

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