Hacker News Reader

Comment by wooster | Hacker News Reader

It's not FUD. I don't have a Google Profile, but Buzz was automatically activated (even though I clicked the no/cancel/whatever-it-said-because-it-totally-ignored-me-anyway button) when I logged into GMail.

I don't care if it was made public. If I had a profile, and it was made public, that would not have made things better. That would be worse. I should not need to understand the subtle privacy interplay of several different and seemingly unrelated Google products just because I use one of them (Gmail).

View on HN

I should not need to understand the subtle privacy interplay of several different and seemingly unrelated Google products just because I use one of them (Gmail).

I entirely agree with this, although I'll point out that IIRC Google Chat did the same thing in terms of modifying gmail but no-one seemed to really object to that. Buzz seems to be different because of the privacy issues, i.e. Google didn't communicate well what would happen (specifically a public profile that included your follower/followee lists) if you clicked "yes". That there's a new link on the left-hand menu can't really be the main issue, is it?

As far as FUD, I'm specifically referring to comments like this:

There is absolutely no way to opt out of Buzz.

http://twitter.com/etherial/status/9023625277

It IS possible to opt out of Buzz, ~ its just that its counter-intuitive and once you've hit the "Yes" button, somewhat difficult to undo.

I've been wondering the same thing: why does it bother me so much that Buzz auto-follows frequently-emailed contacts, but it doesn't bother me that gchat automatically adds frequently-emailed contacts? I think it might be because having contacts added in gchat doesn't mean I'll actually be communicating with them, whereas auto-follow does mean that some communication will take place... I'm not sure though. Also, I guess that having a strictly professional contact's name sitting in my gchat contacts list is different than that person being notified that I'm following them.

why does it bother me so much that Buzz auto-follows frequently-emailed contacts

Because in combination with the default of having your follow list public, that exposes who you've been emailing to the world.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com