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toastykittenI long ago gave up any pretense to privacy on the Internet. Even the "friendslock" feature on Livejournal - that I kind of consider a placebo like Airborne. It makes me feel better, but I know that given the right tools, anyone could hack it and get access to my entries.
Besides all the first issues that broke out - making all your email contacts "your friends" (obviously they didn't get anyone outside Google to test this), the ability to integrate with Twitter but not Facebook, it's almost impossible to turn off, unless you know what you're doing.
So if you're at all concerned about your own privacy for whatever reason, I wouldn't use it.
The user experience itself is kind of weird. Stuff from Google Reader is shared on Buzz, and then if people comment on any post you make, you're notified via email. Except Buzz is already in your email so all you'd have to do is click on the Buzz link to see your new updates. And then you're also notified in Google Reader of things that are shared from other people's Google Readers, which amounts to a total duplication of entries across a couple of spaces. Needless to say, it's pretty irritating. I'm sure you can turn it off, but how to turn it off is not obvious. Added to that is the fact that the people in your Buzz feed and your Reader feed are not necessarily all the same, nor are they your same Twitter followers. It's mind-numbing.
Also, I would not use Google Latitude unless you have a really good reason. If you do use it, make sure you turn it off when you're done. And make sure that it's only available to people you trust 100%. The only reason I use it is so Mark can see if I'm stuck in traffic or not.
Besides all the first issues that broke out - making all your email contacts "your friends" (obviously they didn't get anyone outside Google to test this), the ability to integrate with Twitter but not Facebook, it's almost impossible to turn off, unless you know what you're doing.
So if you're at all concerned about your own privacy for whatever reason, I wouldn't use it.
The user experience itself is kind of weird. Stuff from Google Reader is shared on Buzz, and then if people comment on any post you make, you're notified via email. Except Buzz is already in your email so all you'd have to do is click on the Buzz link to see your new updates. And then you're also notified in Google Reader of things that are shared from other people's Google Readers, which amounts to a total duplication of entries across a couple of spaces. Needless to say, it's pretty irritating. I'm sure you can turn it off, but how to turn it off is not obvious. Added to that is the fact that the people in your Buzz feed and your Reader feed are not necessarily all the same, nor are they your same Twitter followers. It's mind-numbing.
Also, I would not use Google Latitude unless you have a really good reason. If you do use it, make sure you turn it off when you're done. And make sure that it's only available to people you trust 100%. The only reason I use it is so Mark can see if I'm stuck in traffic or not.
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