March 19th, 2010 by Geoff
An outgoing FTC commissioner, Pamela Jones Harbour, has slammed Google for the way in which they launched their new social media network Google Buzz last month. The commissioner called the release “irresponsible conduct.” Pamela Jones Harbour was also thought to have said that Google and other online companies may face harsher penalties if they don’t do a better job of protecting consumer privacy.
The FTC commissioner had some strong words to say about Google:
“Google consistently tells the public to ‘just trust us,’” she said. “But based on my observations, I do not believe consumer privacy played any significant role in the release of Buzz.”
Harbour also went on to say that the launch of Buzz was a “material change” their relationship with Google’s Gmail, she said. “When users created Gmail accounts, they signed up for e-mail services,” she said. “Their expectations did not include social networking.”
A large amount of negative reaction to Google Buzz was quick and widespread after its February 9th launch. Google immediately began changing how Buzz works, and eventually issued a public apology that said Google “failed to appreciate that users have differing privacy expectations.”
But Commissioner Harbour also took exception to that approach during today’s FTC privacy workshop.
“I would like to see the commission take the position of intolerance toward companies that push the privacy envelop, then backtrack and modify their offerings after facing consumer and regulator backlash.”
Harbour, whom is due to leave the FTC next month, also spoke critically of Facebook’s long-running privacy issues, and called for online companies to use encryption more often to protect their users personal data.
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