Buzz...Schmuzz

This week, I watched my friends who had innocently signed up for the Google email service known as gmail struggle with "Buzz"...Google's new alternative to Twitter. With no prior notification, I noticed when I logged into my email account that I had been automatically signed up for this service. Okay, no problem at least I didn't have to come up with another user name and password or login to a different site which by the way is my main issue with joining twitter but I digress. I thought nothing of it when I found out I already had 4 followers and was following 10 people; they were people I knew (my email contacts), no big deal.

However, as I read friends' buzzes (i'm guessing that's what it will be called) I came to realize that Google had crossed the line. It seemed like almost everything you did was buzzed to all your followers -posted pictures, blog posts etc. Google had somehow decided that all your followers were entitled to know what you were up to -forget the fact that you were automatically designated followers (and rejecting them seemed oh! so rude). A friend posted some pictures in her supposedly private online album and Google buzzed the link to the album to all her followers; another friend thought she was just chatting with one person but was actually buzzing to the entire world, apparently there is a setting to chat with just one contact but of course this was not the default. As another friend put it, "I was going to send an email to someone but I got so scared, I decided to pick up the phone".

Oh internet!, you have brought so much good to us -instant connections, long lost friends, marriages ;-) but when did privacy become so elusive that we have to fight for it, why should the default setting be "yes, please broadcast every single thing I do to the entire world". I find this amusing because I figured out the issue pretty quickly and rectified it immediately, but it will only go downhill from here, as much as I love social networking, I still love my privacy and think (hope) it is my right to decide who I want to know my business and not be defaulted into it. So dear people of earth, next time you log into your email, or any site, be careful....you may be broadcasting (or buzzing) to the entire world.

Here's hoping I am.