Turn Off Google Buzz ! How and Why ?
I have turned off Google Buzz, if you have not find a reason good enough for this, let’s firs read this article on BusinessInsider and then read the rest of this post.
The article mentioned above is a bit technical, let me explain the threat in simplest words and then I will show you how to remove it.
The privacy threat behind Google Buzz:
Consider the snapshot beow:
I you have enabled Google Buzz and when you will click on anyone of your contacts you will see this a screen like above, pretty innocent, hmmm, No!
If you click on the link on the “following” link, you will instantly get all my contacts!
Imagine all my contacts, family members, business contacts,friends and foes etc. Everything exposed! and the best part is that all of this has been done without any explicit statement from Google!
If you have any doubts check this out in your buzz Now!
How to Turn Off Google Buzz Effectively and Safely!
Before you turn of Google Buzz completely, first step is to unfollow everyone, do it mannually and now! This is how you will do it:
- Click on the Buzz Icon
- Click on your name
- Click on your Following Link and UnFollow everyone!
Turn Off Google Buzz Until Google Updates its policies:
Scroll Down to bottom of Gmail Window and Click Turn Off Buzz.
This is the worst ever mistake made by Google (made by Google in my Opinion). I will discuss in my future posts about the possible threats about such mistakes from Google or similar companies.
[Update: Thursday, February 11, 2010 4:49 PM] Google has updated there policy about Google Buzz as a response to complains, I am not sure about the consequences yet, check it:
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/millions-of-buzz-users-and-improvements.html
Thanks a lot dear, Mohsin its really bad thing introducing by google. I hope after read this post a number of people will be thankful to you like me.
LOL…da same thing happens on Yahoo Connect and Twitter, etc, etc…
dats not a privacy leak!
Double Check it dude, you follow on twitter with the people you wish to expose publicly! On Google Buzz google has chosen to display information from your contacts you may not want to expose.
When I log in my yahoo account, a lot of offline messages pop up that is very annoying. people don’t like that people’s information is flood out in their email account, that is why I don’t think that Google Buzz service can get a value in the market.
Thank you Mohsin for your value able and prompt participation.
Thanks, Mohsin, for the detailed steps.
I resent the fact that Google turns it on by default and we have to go through a procedure to turn it off!
Thanks for telling me. Turned off now. Leaving Google. Found a nice old school-webmail at the portal ireland.com (no Im not spamming about them, it´s just a tip for an easy webmail with almost no ads, that i just found randomly)
HacK_MiNDeD:
You dont get the whole point of email do you? Can I come and listen to all your phonecalls too? Let me guees you are younger than me…anyway….myself, i´ve used gmail when looking for new jobs, perhaps i dont want my boss at the moment to know this, you know? I´ve been mailing with at least 10 diffrent other companies this winter….I DONT WANT THAT FLOATING AROUND PUBLIC! Guess im lucky anyway, cause i never did trust google 100% so ive had another webmail when mailing with my lawyer.
I was also wondering about the contacts list as I was going through Buzz. Good blog Mohsin
It looks like Google turned off its new feature. I wanted to check how it really is with Buzzz today and didn’t find it. There’s also no option allowing to turn it on.
Maybe they reflected that made privacy mistake and now trying to fix it.
Or just maybe free trial just ended. I logged into my another account and got buzzz again.
I don’t get it :/
Thanks for the wonderful post mohsin. Buzz is the worst thing developed by google i think.Google is always my favourite but buzz made me to get disappointed.
Hope they will take it off soon and comeup with some nice feature…