EPIC Urges FTC to Investigate Google Buzz

[Cees Binkhorst]

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[EPIC NEWS] EPIC Alert 17.04
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[4] EPIC Urges FTC to Investigate Google Buzz
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EPIC has filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC),
urging the FTC to open an investigation into Google Buzz. Google tried
to transform its popular email service, Gmail, into an untested social
networking service. As a consequence, Google transformed users' most
frequent address book contacts into publicly viewable social networking
contacts.

The change to Google's email service was widely opposed by users, and
prompted Google to undergo two rounds of modifications to the Buzz
service. Despite these changes, Google Buzz is still an opt-out
service. EPIC filed its complaint on February 16, 2010, arguing that
the changes to Buzz are not sufficient to protect the privacy of Gmail
users.

EPIC's complaint cites clear harms to service subscribers, and alleges
that the change in business practices "violated user expectations,
diminished user privacy, contradicted Google's privacy policy, and may
have violated federal wiretap laws." EPIC asserts that email providers
have a responsibility to safeguard the personal information that users
provide and Google has failed to fulfill this responsibility.

The complaint urges the FTC to require Google to make the Buzz service
fully opt-in, to stop using Gmail users' private address book contacts
to compile social networking lists, and to give Google users meaningful
control over their personal data. EPIC also noted that the FTC has
failed to take action in response to EPIC's previous complaint,
involving Google and Cloud Computing services.

EPIC: FTC Complaint: In re Google Buzz
      http://epic.org/privacy/ftc/googlebuzz/GoogleBuzz_Complaint.pdf

Google: About Google Buzz
      http://www.google.com/buzz

EPIC: Google and Cloud Computing Services
      http://epic.org/privacy/cloudcomputing/google/

EPIC: In re Google Buzz
      http://epic.org/privacy/ftc/googlebuzz

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