[Infowarrior] - Class action against Google Buzz

[Richard Forno]

Google slapped with class-action lawsuit over Buzz
Florida woman contends that Buzz violates Gmail user privacy rights,  
federal laws
Sharon Gaudin
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9158858/Google_slapped_with_class_action_lawsuit_over_Buzz?
February 18, 2010 (Computerworld) A Florida woman yesterday filed a  
class-action lawsuit against Google Inc., charging that the new Buzz  
social networking tool set violates the privacy rights of users.

Eva Hibnick, a resident of Sarasota County, Fla., filed the suit in a  
San Jose, Calif., federal court on behalf of herself and the  
approximately 31 million U.S. users of Google's popular Gmail e-mail  
service. The lawsuit alleges that Google violated federal privacy and  
computer fraud laws by adding Buzz to the Gmail service last week.

According to the class action complaint, "Google Buzz made private  
data belonging to Gmail users publicly available without the users'  
knowledge or authorization. Google has publicly admitted that its Buzz  
program presents privacy concerns, and Google has made several waves  
of modifications to the program. However, Google's modifications do  
not go far enough to address the problem. Furthermore, Google's  
actions have already caused damage because the Buzz program disclosed  
private user information the moment Google launched the service. The  
bell of breached privacy cannot be un-rung."

Hibnick is seeking unspecified damages and is asking the court to  
prevent Google from offering Buzz without "appropriate safeguards,  
default provisions and opt-in mechanisms."

In an e-mail to Computerworld, Google said it has not yet been served  
with the lawsuit and would not comment until the complaint has been  
received and reviewed.

Google last week threw its hat into the social networking ring by  
adding new Gmail features designed to make the e-mail service a social  
networking hub. Google Buzz is the company's attempt to make the flood  
of social posts, pictures and video easier to weed through, and to  
make it easier to find important information.

Users started expressing concerns about the complexity of the privacy  
setting in Buzz almost immediately after its Feb. 9 launch.

In response, Google said it had tweaked the technology to address  
early privacy concerns just two days after the launch of Buzz. The  
company noted in a blog post that the modifications should make it  
easier for users to block access to their pages and also make it  
easier to find two different privacy features.

In her lawsuit, Hibnick called Google's tweaks to Buzz too little and  
too late.

Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group, said that if  
nothing else, the lawsuit should serve as an eye opener for Google  
executives.

"This should definitely be a wake-up call for them to go over Buzz  
with a magnifying glass and a fine-toothed comb, looking for any other  
potential problems and try to fix them proactively," Olds said.  
"Actually, the lawsuit doesn't surprise me at all. In fact, I'm a  
little surprised that there's only one so far. Given our litigious  
society, plus Google's recent missteps in terms of privacy, I wouldn't  
be surprised if state and/or federal regulators got into the act, too.  
Google did make some serious blunders with Buzz. Plus they aren't the  
underdog anymore. Their halo is getting a bit tarnished in some ways."

Olds added that he doesn't foresee the lawsuit having a major  
financial impact on Google but it should bring more scrutiny down on  
the company and its privacy moves and policies.