Google Buzz Spawns Class-Action Lawsuit

(Feb. 18) -- This was not the buzz that Google wanted to hear.

A class-action lawsuit was filed at a San Jose, Calif., federal court on Wednesday, alleging that Google's new e-mail and social networking hybrid, Buzz, violated privacy laws.

Google, which is based in Mountainview, Calif., launched Buzz on Feb. 9 and within hours had received a wave of bad press and user complaints regarding the way the program automatically shared potentially private information without a user's approval.

Initially, when a person signed up for Buzz, the program generated a list of contacts with whom a user could share instant messages, links and images. But those contacts, which were determined by the frequency of e-mail exchanges on Google's Gmail service, could be viewed by any other contact, revealing relationship particulars normally hidden from view.

"One day I logged into my Gmail account and suddenly all my contacts were following me, and I was following them," Eva Hibnick, the lead plaintiff in the new lawsuit, told AOL News. "It bothered me that people I no longer correspond with could suddenly see who I was talking to. I was shocked that Google made this decision for me."

A 24-year-old law student at Harvard, Hibnick and a classmate contacted a professor about filing suit after spending days trying to restore her e-mail account to the way it was before the changes brought about by Buzz. Her lawsuit accuses Google of breaking the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

In response to the outcry from users, Google issued a public apology on its blog on Saturday. "We've heard your feedback loud and clear, and since we launched Google Buzz four days ago, we've been working around the clock to address the concerns you've raised," Google's product manager Todd Jackson wrote.

The company has taken a number of steps to try to allay privacy concerns, most notably doing away with the automatic contact list. Now, Google suggests possible contacts, but a user must confirm any addition.

Adding to Google's woes over Buzz, The Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington, D.C., pubic advocacy group, filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday, alleging that Buzz constituted "unfair and deceptive trade practices."