Google Buzz

[holdouttrout]

You know, I understand that I'm on the internet, and that the concept of privacy on the internet is fluid at the best of times.

I learned early on, for example, that my fannish name (holdouttrout) that I initially meant to be private from most of my real-life friends had been compromised because I had, for some reason, told a friend the name and they'd put it in their blog reader. I'd forgotten and started using this name to write fanfic, and had made friends so that I didn't want to use a different name. I decided to not panic, and keep my name. (As a bonus, I learned that my friends were not going to disown me for writing pr0n, and my online life got a little easier.)

I also decided, after a spell panic that my boss *might* look for my online name, and *might* be able to find it, that it wouldn't be the end of the world if he did, and if he was going to fire me for writing pr0n, then I would just have to find another job. (Although I did start locking my posts with a certain amount of personal information.)

However, I do like to keep my two identities somewhat separate, so that if one knows one, it's not *too* easy to find the other. (Mind you, I am not entirely consistent and have learned quite a lot about what not to do if you want to keep fannish and personal lives completely separate, and would likely do things very, very differently if I were to start over.)

Anyway, one of the main problems with Buzz is that it linked people by connections with other people automatically, without any way to avoid being linked through to other people, and if your fannish and personal lives are not completely separate, then it's really, really easy for someone to find one through the other. I hear that people are no longer linked automatically, but I made some mistakes in my initial dealings with Buzz that mean that I accidentally opened myself up more publicly than I wanted, and because of the way the internet works, I can NEVER get that little slice of privacy back.

Thanks, google.

All of this could have been avoided if google had thought about the privacy of the people who used gmail, even a little. I like to think that they would have made it opt-in instead of opt-out, given people the opportunity to keep their inbox completely private, told people what to do to avoid being linked with people they didn't want to see, and done all of this before rolling out a change like this.

But then, I like to think the best of people.

Comments

[katcorvi.livejournal.com]

What? It's not an opt in thing? I haven't paid much attention to it because I thought that it was. GRRR! ARRGH! I do have two gmail accounts, one is fannish, the other not, but there is a wee bit of overlap, like my mother-in-law has my katcorvi email account and uses it. I wish she didn't, but like you, I had one email account initially and then wised up and got a second. GRRR! ARRRGH!!

[zorb]

If you haven't started using it at all, you don't have anything to worry about. Nothing that your contacts (meaning people whose email addresses you have or people who have your email address) don't already know about you is shown, and there's no concept of linked accounts. If you did start using it, you can turn off displaying followers/following lists on your profile (even then, it only shows names, not email addresses).

I'm going to do a post about this at some point because I've seen so much confusion on my flist. :-/

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Even so, there are real concerns with having even just names linked, and it was confusing to me, personally that you had to make your profile publicly visible in order to comment on other people's posts, so my full name was (for a while) publicly visible. *sighs*

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

And no, it doesn't show that Fannish Account and RL Account are linked officially, but because of how much I mail between the two, they were automatically linked for me.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

As zorb says, if you haven't used it at all, you're probably alright, especially now that Google has, apparently, changed some of the privacy issues.

[annerbhp.livejournal.com]

This is like my worst nightmare. Very glad not to have gmail accounts. Though I seem to recall being on a google group or two a million years ago. I hope that doesn't mean I have some gmail account somewhere without knowing it.

Fail, Google, FAIL.

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I mean, if you didn't look at buzz at all, you're pretty safe...

[syxp.livejournal.com]

I opened a gmail account in your name with all your information. I'm currently linking you to everyone on the planet.

No need to thank me.

Nellie

[mrspollifax.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think there's a big difference between accepting that if someone wants to know everything you do on the internet badly enough, there's probably a way for them to figure it out, and having your various service providers make it easy (or at least easier) to figure it out without even asking you before they expose the information.

And anyway, I don't think the assumption that I want to talk in a social networking environment with every gmail address that I've ever exchanged email with even makes any sense in the first place. TBH, I wonder if they rushed it out the door without having a lot of important conversations about how people would use it because they felt like they were behind the market or something (but that's complete speculation on my part - I haven't been following the press on it at all).

/ramble

[holdouttrout.livejournal.com]

Right, and right. I mean, I know there are Ways, but a two-second search shouldn't be one of them.

[stargazercmc.livejournal.com]

Yeah, people can say what they will about AOL, but I've not once in 15 years EVER had to deal with privacy issues. And their spam blockers are pretty fierce, too.