WARNING: Google Buzz Has A Huge Privacy Flaw

Do you use gmail? If so, be aware that it exposes you to a potentially serious privacy flaw - if you work in human rights or otherwise don't want to share who you email with to the public, you need to read this post for an explanation.

The long and short of it is this: you were or will shortly be invited to start using Google Buzz, a new social networking application integrated with gmail. Buzz looks to become an amazingly useful tool that augments the "follow" and "be followed" features of Facebook and Twitter, especially as more people start turning it on in their gmail. I am using it personally (click to see my Google Profile and follow me) and for Kabissa (click for Kabissa's Google Profile and to follow Kabissa). 

BUT, when Buzz is activated on your gmail account you will get a big message welcoming you - when you click to accept this you will immediately begin sharing the people you email with via a new public Google Profile. Here's the relevant bit from Nicholas Carlson's post WARNING: Google Buzz Has A Huge Privacy Flaw on BusinessInsider.com:

(Freaking out already? Here's how to IMMEDIATELY stop following someone >)

But it does not say that these publicly viewable follower lists are made up of people you most frequently email and chat with.

Even if it did say that, we doubt most users bother to read the text in the dialogue box before clicking "save profile and continue."

When you first post to Google Buzz, there is a dialogue box that reads "Before participating in Buzz, you need a public profile with your name and photo."

It also says -- albeit in tiny gray letters against a white background, "Your profile includes your name, photo, people you follow, and people who follow you."

@sunil_abraham @cshirky @sivavaid thanks for sharing Buzz privacy flaw via twitter.