Enraged Gmail Users Grab Pitchforks, Sue Google over Buzz

February 22, 2010 By Nick Mokey

Not content to express their discontent in 140 characters on Twitter, angry Gmail users have piled onto a class action lawsuit led by a Harvard law student.

As if a wave of Internet uproar and a privacy complaint to the FTC weren’t enough, Google’s Buzz has finally sparked that all-important benchmark of consumer discontent: a class-action lawsuit.

According to lawyers for Eva Hibnick, Buzz wasn’t just a shoddy addition to their favorite e-mail service, it was actually illegal. Lawyers for the 24-year-old Harvard law student allege that Buzz broke numerous electronic communication laws, including the Federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Federal Stored Communications Act and California common and statutory law. With Hibnick as the figurehead, they’ve filed a class-action lawsuit in a San Jose court.

“I feel like they did something wrong,” said Hibnick, according to ABC News. “They opted me into this social network and I didn’t want it.”

The majority of complaints about Buzz revolved around its automatic friend selection process. When Google activated Buzz, existing Gmail users automatically became part of the network, with their most commonly contacted friends added as followers for all to see. As a flurry of fuming users pointed out, this opened the door for all sorts of accidental reveals: a journalist’s confidential sources exposed, an employee’s contact with a rival company, a husband’s continued correspondence with an ex.

Although Google has since relented and changed the privacy controls for Buzz, Hibnick’s lawyers still feel Google’s opt-out model is deceptive, and that the damage has already been done from the private information shared at launch.

The complaint seeks an injunction barring Google from the same type of action in the future, along with “unspecified monetary relief.”

Showing 6 comments

Google to put Buzz out of its misery (Digital Trends) | News Bulletins at 5:10pm 14th October 2011 [...] Now, most of you are likely asking, “Wait a minute, Google Buzz was still alive?” We asked ourselves the same question. And that, it would seem, is precisely the reason why Google has put the failed-from-the start product out of its misery. That said, Google doesn’t view Buzz as a mistake. Rather, it sees it as a learning opportunity, especially when it comes to user privacy – something Buzz didn’t get right, at all. [...]
Google Buzz is dead at 12:45pm 14th October 2011 [...] Now, most of you are likely asking, “Wait a minute, Google Buzz was still alive?” We asked ourselves the same question. And that, it would seem, is precisely the reason why Google has put the failed-from-the start product out of its misery. That said, Google doesn’t view Buzz as a mistake. Rather, it sees it as a learning opportunity, especially when it comes to user privacy – something Buzz didn’t get right, at all. [...]
Google personalizes local search with Hotpot at 4:10pm 16th November 2010 [...] that, there’s no personal information available – something Google may have learned from its Buzz debacle. The focus is on Places, your rankings, and the recommendations eventually generated for you. By [...]
Google settles Buzz lawsuit for $8.5 million, doesn’t quite own up to its mistakes at 5:21pm 2nd November 2010 [...] as Gmail’s social media feature. The networking tool’s debut was met with mild confusion to outright rage, as Buzz users were quick to file a complaint with the FTC against the application shortly after [...]
Steve at 7:34pm 22nd February 2010 Says a jewish person, Rabbi.

This case is so frivolous I want to throw up.
Rabbi Karpov at 4:42pm 22nd February 2010 It was about time.

Rabbi Karpov