NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] "Google Buzz" -- and the Risks of "Automatic Friends"
"Google Buzz" -- and the Risks of "Automatic Friends"
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000680.html
Greetings. As you may have heard, Google has finally rolled out their
integrated approach to social networking ( http://bit.ly/bYTKcI
[Official Google Blog] ). Called "Google Buzz" (oddly, there's
already a different sort of "Yahoo! Buzz" - http://bit.ly/9iSN2l ),
this sort of service from Google was inevitable given the rise in
social networking.
Whether or not the goal of Google Buzz (let's call it "Gbuzz" for now)
is really to be a Twitter or Facebook "killer" as some observers have
suggested, Google is doing a couple of key things very differently
with Gbuzz -- one of them very positive, the other seemingly quite
problematic.
First the good part. Following in Google's tradition of promoting
open standards, Gbuzz has reportedly been created to be an open
platform that will have API-based conduits for third-party apps. So
all manner of interfaces can flower. Excellent.
Now for the not so excellent. Gbuzz, being tightly integrated with
Gmail, apparently makes the implicit assumption that your frequent
e-mail contacts should also automatically be declared as your
"friends" for social update sharing purposes, and by default creates
automatic "follow" lists on this basis.
Maybe this will work just fine for some people, but man, it might be
just plain dangerous for others -- perhaps especially those persons
who use a single Gmail account to communicate with both personal
friends and business associates. Is routinely updating your business
acquaintances with the same information as your personal contacts
typically appropriate? Doubtful.
To be sure, you can manually drop specific Gbuzz "friends" from your
list. Well, sort of. I didn't see obvious analogues in Gbuzz for
Twitter's "block" or "lock" functions, and there are a number of
mysterious "no profile" anonymous "followers" in Gbuzz that I seem to
have on Day Zero -- and who I can't seem to identify or delete in any
way. Who are they? I don't know! Hmm.
Of primary concern of course is the risk that users will
inappropriately share specific information in compromising,
embarrassing, or perhaps even hazardous ways, by not being fully
cognizant of whom they're actually sharing with at any particular
time. The Google Reader/Google Chat sharing assumptions have already
been known to cause some users problems, and the Gbuzz tie-in to Gmail
would appear to expand the universe of potential similar issues
extensively.
There are counter-arguments. Google's sharing options are off unless
you activate them, and you're under no obligation to actually use
Gbuzz no matter how much you use Gmail. And it could be argued that
people who want to share should be diligent about pruning their friend
lists -- especially automatically created friend lists!
But overall, my gut feeling is that, however much Google wanted to
encourage social networking within their product mix, the default
algorithm for friends selection in Google Buzz is wrong.
There should be a much more aggressive procedure to ensure that users
have vetted each "automatic friend" that Gbuzz adds to sharing lists.
Without affirmative approval from users (unless they specifically
choose to waive such confirmations) users' individual e-mail
correspondents should probably not be added to friend lists without
specific approval in each individual case.
As I've said many times before, defaults really do matter. I hope
that Google will reconsider the defaults that apparently are currently
implemented in Google Buzz.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
- Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, GCTIP - Global Coalition
for Transparent Internet Performance - http://www.gctip.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein