In my recent entry The Buzzkill of Google Buzz, I described how Google used their popular free email program, Gmail, to populate and spread an attempt at building a new social network overnight called “Google Buzz.” They did this by automatically adding people to your network from your contacts list (which is automatically built from anyone you email regularly).
The problem was that this exposed your contacts to one another, initially including even their email addresses (which you didn’t realize nor intend when you agreed to Google Buzz that first day it launched). And Google never asked your permission to add these people to your Buzz network.
It also shared your Google Reader documents, apparently. (I don’t use Google Reader, so I wasn’t aware of this component of the privacy invasion until later. Which only goes to show you how complex the Google network of interconnected services can come back to haunt you later on, in ways you never imagined.)
This creates all sorts of privacy problems not just for professionals, but for ordinary folks too. Imagine a new boyfriend learning that you correspond with someone from “aa.org.” Information you were going to share in due time, but now suddenly exposed.
In the comments to that post, an interesting discussion ensued which I encourage you to read. It lays out all of the problems with what happened, the ramifications, and why professionals should never rely on a free email service for any kind of professional activity.
It got me to wondering about why people flock to free email services like Hotmail, Yahoo mail and Gmail, when they almost always have an email account provided by their Internet service provider that is likely less susceptible to these kinds of issues.
I can sum it up in three words — ease of use.