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Lawmakers Ask For FTC Investigation of Google Buzz

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the always-with-the-investigating dept.

angry tapir writes "Eleven US lawmakers have asked the FTC to investigate Google's launch of its Buzz social-networking product for breaches of consumer privacy. The representatives — six Democrats and five Republicans from the House Energy and Commerce Committee — noted in their letter that Google's roll-out of Buzz exposed private information of users to Google's Gmail service to outsiders. In one case, a 9-year-old girl accidentally shared her contact list in Gmail with a person who has a 'sexually charged' username, the lawmakers said in the letter."

1 of 131 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Just a thought... by Bigjeff5 · · Score: 5, Informative

    The auto-follow feature was set for people you had repeated correspondence with - i.e. lots of gmail conversations.

    In other words, this 9 year old wasn't introduced to the person with the "sexually charged username", whatever the hell that means, the kid had been talking to this guy many times well before Buzz launched.

    Buzz just made it plain that the two had been corresponding for some time now.

    I swear, politicians have to be some of the dumbest fucking people on earth, it drives me insane sometimes.

    --
    Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller