Been reading about a product that Google appears to have sprung on GMail users that raises significant privacy and security concerns. Here's an excerpt from an article I'm linking:

"Google piggy-backed  Buzz --  a hybrid social network that's part Facebook, part Twitter -- onto the  Gmail accounts of the 176 million users of its free online email service. .... a Google algorithm selects up to 50 of your Gmail contacts and designates them as your Buzz followers, or folks interested in any Twitter-like microblogs you might post Internet-wide. Google then makes this pre-designated list of  your followers, as well as the list of people it  has designated you to follow,  available Internet-wide."

There is an option to "turn off" Buzz but I can't help but wonder what else is going on in the background. Time to find another - hopefully secure and private - email service.

Here's the article:

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/technologylive/post/2010/02/google-buzz-facing-privacy-security-storm-1/1