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by nick-dap 5972 days ago
I went searching through the Settings page to no avail before I gave up and Googled (irony) how to turn it off.

Besides the point though. They opt you into a service you didn't sign up for, and require you to take measured steps to preserve your privacy.

It's good for Google, whether its a good default or not is debatable.
3 comments
akkartik 5972 days ago
Yes, it's being debated: http://www.techmeme.com/100210/p66#a100210p66
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sketerpot 5972 days ago
I had to click a button to enable Buzz. Did they change their sign-up policy at some point?
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ewjordan 5972 days ago
Same here - logged into Gmail and I was forced to choose whether to go into Buzz or old fashioned Gmail. Maybe they're tinkering with the process or something...

I'd have to agree, though, that the default of following everyone that you e-mail is a bit extreme, especially if everyone else can see it, too. Probably better to at least offer people a choice, either follow all, follow none, or manually select.

As far as privacy violations go, though, I don't see this one as very major. I'd expect that with all the complaining going on, this behavior will be changed very soon.

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bmj 5972 days ago
Me, too.

It was available for mobile users immediately, but it also didn't seem to be integrated into mobile GMail when I first looked at it.

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cookiecaper 5972 days ago
I was just going to post saying I didn't think they invaded privacy because they don't post anything by default, so if you don't do anything with it it just sits there, but then I remembered that they _do_ link Picasa and Reader by default, so that's pretty bad, yeah. I know that it autofollowed and auto-subscribed some workmates with whom I don't want to share anything which wasn't explicitly intended for them.

So, Buzz would be fine if it just left everything alone, but I would be pissed if I actually used Picasa or Reader and my activity got published without my explicit approval.

I also want to control who can follow me -- if that option exists right now, I haven't found it. I don't want casual acquaintances or workmates to see things I post, even if they've subscribed to me.

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