An assortment of cross-party lawmakers from the U.S. House of Representatives has officially asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the launch of Google Buzz for potentially breaching consumer privacy.
Trouble was brewing early on for Google over its launch of Buzz, with privacy advocates quick to file a class action complaint in San Jose federal court last month.
Now PC World reports that six Democrats have joined five Republicans from the House of Energy and Commerce Committee in petitioning the FTC to look into Google’s handling of the launch, which they say exposed Gmail users’ private information to outsiders.
Google was quick to respond to concerns by making changes to how the service worked. Still, that quick back-peddle could end up underscoring the perceived privacy issues — on original first launch, your most frequently e-mailed list of contacts was made public by default.
As such things go, the process may be long and drawn out even if the FTC decides to undertake the investigation, so it’s likely to be a while before we hear the end of the Buzz privacy brouhaha.
What do you think: Should the FTC investigate? Did Google violate users’ privacy during the launch of Buzz?
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Tags: FTC, gmail, Google, google buzz, privacy
