Google Settles Buzz Privacy Lawsuit For $8.5 Million

Google will pay $8.5 million (£5.5m) to settle a lawsuit which claimed the Google Buzz social networking service, violated privacy earlier this year.

Buzz, launched in February, allows users to opt in to a service that lets users share and discuss links, photos and videos with their Gmail contacts. However, users quickly realised their email contacts were also exposed to users of Buzz with whom they had not opted to share their contacts.

Google quickly closed these privacy holes and added more user controls, but the damage was done, and seven individuals filed a class-action suit in a San Francisco court, arguing that Google’s Buzz violated privacy law.

The plaintiffs will receive $2,500 apiece, with most of the settlement money funding organisations focused on Internet privacy policy or privacy education. Some $2 million will go to the plaintiffs’ attorneys, according to reports.

Google’s Privacy Trouble

Google Buzz was the first of two major privacy snafus on Google’s part this year. The search engine in May admitted its Street View cars has accidentally collected 600 Gbyte of user data from Wi-Fi networks in countries all over the world.

Google is working with those countries to give back the data or destroy it. Privacy regulators in Germany and attorneys general in the US are investigating the company over this. Consumer Watchdog made this video mocking the company over this.

Last week, Google took steps to streamline its privacy policies, which tend to be long winded for most Internet companies where users’ digital data is at stake. For example, Google has removed policies for twelve specific products, instead lumping Web services such as Gmail, Talk, Calendar and Docs under one privacy policy.

These privacy policy updates will take effect on October 3.

Google isn’t the only company whose privacy protocols have proven long-winded. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has faced criticism for his company’s attitude. In response to complaints, the social network site has simplified privacy settings which, according to this New York Times piece noted, Facebook’s privacy policy was once longer than the U.S. Constitution.