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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

#161

This is the sort of thing that was absolutely predictable.

If you are certain that this was absolutely predictable, you are implying either:

a) The Google Buzz people are so stupid that they couldn't have predicted this absolutely predictable thing (no one else did that I know of until it bit them) or

b) they knew this would happen and chose to allow it to happen in the bad times hoping the love they'd get from those who like it would be greater than the pain experienced by those to whom it happened.

If either (a) or (b) is true, can we trust Google with our private information? Either they are too dumb to keep it out of the wrong hands or they don't care about individuals' privacy.

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

#162
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure this is entirely right. I have a public profile on Google, but it didn't announce the people that I converse with on a regular basis before Buzz (at least as far as I know). I turned off Buzz because I don't see a value in it for me, but before that I had to search to figure out how to make it so that my contacts were not made public. I was a little irate because it represented a significant portion of m…

That they acknowledged as a mistake, and rectified early on. When you first turned on Buzz, there would have been an option for whether or not you wanted to have your contacts displayed, however I guess it wasn't easy to find. Shortly after releasing Buzz, they made it a lot more obvious (I guess due to user complaints): http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/millions-of-buzz-users... (item # 1) They are certainly res…

As of about an hour or so ago, it still wasn't fixed. Clicking "No, thanks" on the first Buzz popup screen means nothing - Buzz still gets enabled, still auto-populates a big list of followers and followees, and still makes that list public.

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

#163

"If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place..." -Google CEO Eric Schmidt, in 2009.

I hate that attitude so much. I hate that man.

We are all criminals in today's world. He understands that. He just doesn't care. He's a part of the elite that can afford lawyers and protection.

In my wildest dreams he is sued under the DMCA for making a backup copy of one of his kid's dvds.

HATE

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

#164

Can anyone tell me how I can (1) get off buzz, (2) not forward anytthing from me to anyone using buzz, (3) not have buzz appear in my gmail window? I've never opted in to buzz, don't want it, and don't want anything to do with it. There doesn't appear to be any obvious setting where I can get out of it.

First, open the "Buzz" label in GMail. Click on your list of followers and block all of them. Click on "connected sites" and remove any connections.

Now edit your Google profile (if you have one) and remove any information that you don't want public (including "display my full name"): http://www.google.com/profiles/me/editprofile?edit=b

Finally, go to the footer of the GMail site and click "turn off Buzz."

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

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Recklessness and lack of foresight doesn't make you inhuman. If you forwarded this post back in time to the Buzz engineers, they would try to fix it before launch -- not laugh maniacally at the thought of an innocent woman fearing for her safety.

No, they wouldn't. I'm saying this as somebody who built a product around identifying your 'inner circle' from your email patterns[1]. The part I spent the most time on was figuring out how to protect people's privacy, and these scenarios were painfully obvious even to me. Plenty of people at Google have to have thought this through, but decided the benefits to adoption of the current process outweigh the privacy pro…

What are the benefits? Why couldn't they just have a lightbox appear that says, "Yay! We've invented google buzz, here's a list of people we gathered from your frequent contacts in gmail. Click the check boxes by the people you want to include in your inner circle, or click here to disable Google Buzz."

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

#167
post #73
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not true. Civil cases can have a jury.

Can we have a source please, from either of you?

it's common knowledge that many juries have ruled in favor of plaintiffs and defendants in lots of civil cases. No one needs to cite anything for this.

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

#168
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This morning, I've watched two coworkers open their gmail accounts for the first time since Buzz went live. In both cases, they clicked "No thanks, take me to my inbox" instead of the button to "Check out Buzz", and in both cases, Buzz was enabled anyways, and a bunch of people were listed as following/followers. We looked at their profiles, and all the followers/ees were publicly listed. What, exactly, should they h…

> In both cases, they clicked "No thanks, take me to my inbox" instead of the button to "Check out Buzz", and in both cases, Buzz was enabled anyways That's exactly what happened to me. I'm really pissed off with Google now. If they are going to throw this sort of crap at me, I will have to reconsider whether I want gmail and reader accounts.

I can confirm that this just happened to me as well. In fact, if not for this thread I wouldn't have known to go back to check if Buzz was silently enabled.

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

#169
post #144
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am pretty sure you are mistaken. This is the prompt everyone got when they went to buzz for the first time: http://www.digitaltrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/goog... This is also shown in the Google buzz demo video. Responsibility lies on you when you decide not to edit the follow users and check privacy setting when its right in front of you the first time. The only way forward is to click OK, thats what you…

Why is he being down-voted? (-3 at the moment) Oh right, "we don't like his comment, let's get rid of it." Jesus, people, behave. He's making his case based on his knowledge of the situation and he's doing so in an educated manner. Me, personally, I'm in his same situation. I can't understand how people got automatically added to that Buzz thing. The link appeared in my Gmail account and I never clicked it, NEVER. I…

Because he's being sanctimonious and judgmental ("Responsibility lies on YOU") while having his facts completely wrong.

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

#170
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they wouldn't. I'm saying this as somebody who built a product around identifying your 'inner circle' from your email patterns[1]. The part I spent the most time on was figuring out how to protect people's privacy, and these scenarios were painfully obvious even to me. Plenty of people at Google have to have thought this through, but decided the benefits to adoption of the current process outweigh the privacy pro…

What are the benefits? Why couldn't they just have a lightbox appear that says, "Yay! We've invented google buzz, here's a list of people we gathered from your frequent contacts in gmail. Click the check boxes by the people you want to include in your inner circle, or click here to disable Google Buzz."

The lightbox: the new modal dialog.

"User! Answer this question! Now!"

Our user generally doesn't really care about your new feature if they're logging in to check mail; they want to--wait for it--check their mail. Just like users everywhere, they're just going to click on a random button and not even be able to tell you five seconds later whether it said "Go Away" or "Reveal My Location To My Abusive Ex-Husband And All His Friends".

[edit:formatting]

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