Google boss says 'nobody was harmed' by Buzz debacle
guardian.co.uk
guardian.co.uk
I still like Google all around, but the privacy comments were insane.... And the Buzz thing really pissed me off.
They are damaging their brand with him being the face of Google.
It OK for Google to make mistakes (or what people might perceive as privacy infractions), but at least sound apologetic when you do... Least you could do.
Nowhere in his full quotes did he blame users for being confused.
"I would say that we did not understand how to communicate Google Buzz and its privacy," he said. "There was a lot of confusion when it came out on Tuesday, and people thought that somehow we were publishing their email addresses and private information, which was not true."
"I think it was our fault that we did not communicate that fact very well, but the important thing is that no really bad stuff happens in the sense that nobody's personal information was disclosed."
Be careful not to take news reporting - especially headlines - as fact.
That said "that somehow we were publishing their email addresses and private information, which was not true." seems like sort actually untrue, indeed.
Maybe they weren't displaying emails. But they certainly showed the names of my contacts and pictures. I looked at a contacts computer who had the defaul settings, and could see some of my profile.
I guess my point is they should have gone of the side of privacy and caution, but they needed to err on the side of huge social networks (and displaying info helps those build) to sell this product to the public. I just think they made a selfish corporate decision.
At least they are trying to remedy it.
So what Eric is saying is that privacy is fine and dandy for him...but the rest of us can go eat cake.
The whole strategy to impose Google Buzz was disaster. First things first, you shouldn't really play with one of your favorite product unless you have full faith and knowledge that it will complement.
They should have employed the Google Wave strategy to release Buzz or just made Buzz as an opt-in feature and then geeks could use. The change of any kind is intimidating for the normal user and Google should have taken that into account.
This is a huge, huge miss step for a company who wants to be the banker for all of your personal data.
Trust is everything.
Look at how many services Google offers They can know your buying habits, where you live, where you are right now, your credit card number, your friends, your contacts, your browsing habits. If they can't be absolutely trusted with your data it is game over. Period. The end.
"I would say that we did not understand how to communicate Google Buzz and its privacy," he said. "There was a lot of confusion when it came out on Tuesday, and people thought that somehow we were publishing their email addresses and private information, which was not true."
The context where he's using the the word "confusion" is completely accurate, and in no way makes it sound like he's blaming the user, which is what this headline implies.
http://www.businessinsider.com/google-ceo-twitter-a-poor-man...
I used to have a female acquaintance who would complain that "all men are assholes, every guy I've ever dated has ended up cheating on me." I had a male acquaintance who would complain that "all women are bitches, they give me their number and then never answer when I call." They both didn't like it too much when I pointed out that each of them were the common denominators in their respective problems.
When complaints about your company's approach to privacy pop up in large quantities, what's the common denominator? Thousands of "confused" users who don't understand that their privacy wasn't violated/isn't really important after all, or one company with a wrong-headed approach to privacy? When faced with frequent failure, it's not the world out to get you, it's your own failure. But when you have an agenda to push, like focusing on attractiveness over maturity or integrity, looking for quick access to sex instead of building relationships, or creating a master database of people's preferences to serve them the most uniquely targeted ads that they will be the most likely to click on because you don't have a real product to sell, then you tend to ignore the signals around you and push blindly through.