Lawmakers Call for Google Buzz Investigation

(March 30) -- The buzz on Google Buzz hasn't been all that pretty.

Since the early-February launch of the Mountain View, Calif., company's integrated social networking, Web browsing and e-mail hybrid, Google has received terrible press and thousands of complaints from users. It also has found itself the target of a class-action lawsuit claiming that users' privacy rights were violated when Google Buzz shared personal information with other users.

Now, 11 members of Congress are calling on the Federal Trade Commission to launch an investigation into how the alleged privacy breach occurred and whether governmental action needs to be taken against the company.

U.S. Congressman John Barrow is shown during a debate in 2008 in Atlanta, Georgia.

John Bazemore, AP

Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga, is one of 11 members of Congress calling on the Federal Trade Commission to start an investigation into a breach of users' privacy by Google Buzz.

"Due to the high number of individuals whose online privacy is affected by tools like this -- either directly or indirectly -- we feel that these claims warrant the commission's review of Google's public disclosure of personal information of consumers through Google Buzz," said a letter to the FTC from Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga.

Along with Barrow, five Republicans and five other Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee added their names to the letter.

"User transparency and control are very important to us," Google said in a statement provided to AOL News, "and we review all products very carefully before we roll them out. When we realized that we'd unintentionally made many of our users unhappy, we moved quickly to make significant product improvements to address their concerns."

While the company concedes that its internal testing of Google Buzz did not reveal the problems users later reported, it has since taken measures to make its privacy settings easier to find and use. In its letter to the FTC, members of the Energy and Commerce Committee lauded those efforts, but also wanted further answers from Google.

"While we are glad to hear that Google is working on these problems, we remain concerned that personal information was publicly disclosed without notice or choice and has yet to be appropriately secured," the letter read.