The problem is that — by default — the people you follow and the people that follow you are made public to anyone who looks at your profile.
In other words, before you change any settings in Google Buzz, someone could go into your profile and see the people you email and chat with most.
I hated the idea of this feature when I first read about it. When I logged into GMail yesterday and saw that it had been automatically activated, I was not at all happy. At the very least, when Google sprang this on people, they should have set it up as an opt-in instead of an opt out. I suspect that a lot of other people were weirded out when they logged into GMail and saw it, and when they saw what it does to your Google Reader (add everyone you’ve emailed with who has a Google Reader account).
I have zero interest in this feature (and hate social networking, I’m not on any social networking sites for a reason), and I have what I think are reasonable privacy concerns. What the forks Google?!
Shit shit shit.
Besides telling it “turn off Buzz” at the bottom, is there anything else I have to do to keep it from emailing all my shit to my mother? (She wasn’t shown in the followers/following, so I think I might be ok, but I’d rather not risk it.)
You need to change your profile settings. Go here: https://www.google.com/profiles/me/editprofile
Find: “Display the list of people I’m following and people following me” which is on the right. Uncheck it.
But it’s my understanding that you do this only if you HAVE a profile. Not everyone has set one up. For example, even though my accounts were automatically connected, when I click that page it recognizes who I am but asks me to create a profile, rather than showing it to me.
And if you don’t have a profile, then turning off Buzz is all you need to do … right?
Yes ma’am, that is correct.
