Thanks to James for letting me know about the problems people were having.
I thought it was just me.
From: The Supreme Court Of Texas Blog ~ Careful with the Google Buzz
It looks like a lot of people are becoming aware of problems with Google Buzz. It is setup by default to let people see your full account name and all the people you email regularly. Many people might not want to have friends and family and work associates listed like that publicly.
You might also think that all you would have to do is turn it off at the bottom of the page where it plainly says “turn off buzz”…
I am going to tell you right now all that does is hide your Buzz Account from you seeing it. All the information is still there and shared to the world.
So how to turn off the worst stuff?
You first need to get to your main Google Accounts page. Not your GMail settings or any of that.
The Google Accounts Page.
Then select Edit Your Profile which you will see near the top of the page left hand side.
Next you will get this page. Now what I did was quickly get rid of my full real name because I found the settings I am going to show you do not stay selected. Yeah, Google keeps trying to turn them back on like it’s a default they want.
Yeah, it sucks hard but Google set the defaults to sharing all your GMail information on their new social fun time website.
So here are THE HIDDEN SETTINGS. See they are hidden because Google does not want you to turn them off. In fact I have been to this page several times this week to turn these settings back off. Thanks Google, you assholes.
If you want to disable this whole Google Buzz deal then read this post…
Unfortunately stripping out all that stuff out sounds like more work than I want to deal with.
Update! GMail Settings Updated For Buzz
Tags: Google
LVLM wrote,
I’m getting so sick of all this crap. Everywhere you turn these days, these services are stripping more and more privacy rights away or making it hard to keep what’s private, private.
I use Google reader but never set up the whole “who you follow” thingy. I have a gmail account that I never use. I read somewhere that it was all public and I didn’t want anyone and everyone knowing what blogs I follow and so on.
I just go really pissed off with Face Book changing their settings to make things more public and I went in and deleted almost everything and have stopped posting. It sucks, but it’s getting insane the amount of personal info that we don’t have much control over getting out unless we’re very diligent or don’t use those services. Anymore, it’s causing me to shut down, not go “oh wow, thank you for making it so easy for the world to know every thing about me, bless you.” Turds!
Link | February 13th, 2010 at 1:33 pm
Chris wrote,
Hmm. I don’t have a public profile and I’m using the very basic html version of gmail. Either they’ve REALLY hidden Buzz from me (more so than you describe above), or I’ve inadvertently managed to be safe from it.
Link | February 13th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
Maili wrote,
How awesome. I tried to figure out how to turn it off, etc. So thank you for that.
Link | February 14th, 2010 at 3:24 am
SarahT wrote,
Thank you so much for this post. I had no idea Buzz made everything public, although it doesn’t come as a huge surprise.
Link | February 14th, 2010 at 11:36 am
TeddyPig wrote,
Just remember guys any time you post on Google Buzz to check that settings page again.
It seems Google wants to force you to share everything.
Whatever idiot at Google that thought that was a good idea…
I hope they lose their job over this mess.
Link | February 14th, 2010 at 12:55 pm
Christian wrote,
Buzz integrates with Gmail. In my book, that’s about as many kinds of wrong as therr are on this planet. In the world according to me, email is private, while Social Media (SM) is public. Anybody posting anything they don’t want the whole world to see to any SM outlet is a fool. Any company trying to turn my email account into such an outlet is evil. I’ve been calling google the “BigEvilSisterEmpire” and this here issue sure isn’t going to change my mind.
Link | February 14th, 2010 at 11:13 pm
Stumbling Over Chaos :: Today’s forecast is for sunshine and linkity wrote,
[...] Hopefully you’ve been following the Google Buzz fiasco and have have done what you need to do to make your Google account a bit safer? [...]
Link | February 18th, 2010 at 6:07 am
GMail Settings Updated For Buzz | The Naughty Bits wrote,
[...] Updated For: Google Buzz Privacy Issues [...]
Link | February 18th, 2010 at 1:58 pm
Katharina wrote,
Hei many thanks … I tried to figure out how to turn it off, but couldn’t find anything. Now that I checked my settings anew I found that on the bottom of the main gmail page they have installed a button called “turn buzz off”, but every time I check my main settings they want to turn it back on. I hate this stuff. I am not on twitter and facebook, and I don’t plan to use them in the future. I like browsing some blogs and the yahoo groups I am part of but that’s it. If the thing with buzz won’t change, I am forced to look for a new email provider. I love gmail, I think it’s the best email system out there, but I am not interested in becoming a transparent individual.
Link | February 18th, 2010 at 4:49 pm
Wave wrote,
I tried to remove my name but Google won’t let me. It won’t save the updated profile where I deleted my personal information. I refuse to post to Google buzz because I didn’t sign on for this. If I delete Buzz will my Google account disappear?
Link | February 19th, 2010 at 4:48 am
TeddyPig wrote,
All I have read says it will delete your Google Profile not your GMail.
Link | February 19th, 2010 at 4:51 am
Katharina wrote,
Just to let you know, I did delete my buzz stuff (under -> settings -> buzz) and my account survived it. They give you a lot of blah that now one will be able to follow you anymore etc.. etc… but frankly, I don’t care. So delete away.
Link | February 19th, 2010 at 4:57 am