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Privacy & Data

Buzz or Bust (Guest Blog Post)

CDT President Leslie Harris has a column in the Huffington Post discussing the recent "buzz" (no pun intended) surrounding the launch of Google Buzz.  As you're probably aware, Google's social network-like application was immediately panned by many Gmail users because of questionable privacy practices.  Within days of the launch, Google was making statements and tweaking Buzz based on user feedback to make privacy settings more prominent.

Leslie's post talks about Google's response to the situation and how Buzz can be looked at as a textbook example of what can go wrong when the principles of Privacy by Design aren't taken into account.  When new products are rushed out of the gate to the public, sometimes privacy features aren't given due consideration.  With many companies like Google holding massive amounts of user information, paying close attention to how new products allow users to control the release and use of that information is vital to improving privacy control across the board.