Google Settles Buzz Class Action Suit, You Get an E-Mail

Google settled the class action suit brought by a group of Buzz users and let everyone know via Gmail yesterday. The suit came about because of privacy concerns that arose when Buzz was first introduced– namely that Google automatically enrolled all Gmail users and made information publicly available such as their Google Reader comments and most frequent contacts.

Unlike most services which require you to opt-in to share your information, Google just did it for you. Although Google fixed this Buzz opt-in flaw within in a few days, it still messed with its users’ privacy, which had potentially disastrous implications. For example, it exposed this woman’s information to her abusive ex-husband (NSFW language).

As part of the settlement, Google is required to e-mail all of its Gmail users and establish an $8.5 million fund to support Internet privacy policy and  privacy education and pay lawyer fees. The company is also supposed to do more to educate Google users about the privacy aspects of Buzz. Finally, the e-mail Google sent to Gmail users was a mandatory part of the settlement.

The full text of the e-mail is below:

Google rarely contacts Gmail users via email, but we are making an exception to let you know that we’ve reached a settlement in a lawsuit regarding Google Buzz (http://buzz.google.com), a service we launched within Gmail in February of this year.

Shortly after its launch, we heard from a number of people who were concerned about privacy. In addition, we were sued by a group of Buzz users and recently reached a settlement in this case.

The settlement acknowledges that we quickly changed the service to address users’ concerns. In addition, Google has committed $8.5 million to an independent fund, most of which will support organizations promoting privacy education and policy on the web. We will also do more to educate people about privacy controls specific to Buzz. The more people know about privacy online, the better their online experience will be.

Just to be clear, this is not a settlement in which people who use Gmail can file to receive compensation. Everyone in the U.S. who uses Gmail is included in the settlement, unless you personally decide to opt out before December 6, 2010. The Court will consider final approval of the agreement on January 31, 2011. This email is a summary of the settlement, and more detailed information and instructions approved by the court, including instructions about how to opt out, object, or comment, are available at http://www.BuzzClassAction.com.

——————————————————————–

This mandatory announcement was sent to all Gmail users in the United States as part of a legal settlement and was authorized by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

Google Inc. | 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway | Mountain View, CA 94043