Buzz privacy debacle costs Google $8.5 million

 

Gallery

By Nicole Kobie

Posted on 6 Sep 2010 at 12:10

Google will pay out $8.5 million following a lawsuit over privacy concerns from the launch of Buzz.

When Buzz arrived earlier this year, Gmail users were automatically opted in and details of their contacts made public, causing an uproar over privacy - and a class-action lawsuit in the US.

Nearly a third of the payout will cover legal expenses, while the seven complainants will be awarded $2,500 each. The remainder will be divided between online privacy advocacy groups.

The settlement also requires Google to promote online privacy and educate its users on the topic, but the document noted that the web giant has already fixed the flaws in Buzz.

"Google has made changes to the Google Buzz user interface that clarify Google Buzz’s operation and users’ options regarding Google Buzz, including, in particular, changes regarding user information and control over Buzz’s privacy settings," the document noted.

A Google spokesperson said: "We’re satisfied with the agreement and are glad to move forward."

The settlement comes as Google announced it would tweak its privacy statements by October, bringing the bulk of its products under one policy and simplifying the legal language to make it easier to understand.

"For example, we’re deleting a sentence that reads, 'The affiliated sites through which our services are offered may have different privacy practices and we encourage you to read their privacy policies,' since it seems obvious that sites not owned by Google might have their own privacy policies," noted associate general counsel Mike Yang in a post on the Google blog.