Last week Google introduced a new social media feature to its Gmail e-mail service called Google Buzz. Google Buzz combines aspects of social networking and microblogging directly into users' Gmail accounts, allowing users to "follow" and be followed by other Gmail users, and publish and view other users' streams of updates including Google Buzz text updates and shared Twitter, Picasa, Flickr, and Blogger, and Google Reader items.

Shortly after its release Google changed several aspects of Google Buzz due to fierce criticism over the privacy implications of several features.  Google Buzz initially automatically set up users to follow the people they e-mailed and chatted with the most via Gmail.  If the users had public Google Profiles, the list of who they were  automatically selected to follow could be viewed by anyone on the Internet, essentially exposing parts of users' Gmail contact lists.  Troubling scenarios which could be envisioned include that the identity of insider sources a journalist e-mails often, or the identity of clients a lawyer e-mails most often could be publicly revealed via automatically-created Google Buzz follower/following lists displayed by default on public Google Profile pages. 

Due to feedback over privacy concerns Google placed a checkbox with the text "Show the list of people I'm following and the list of people following me on my public profile" in a more prominent position than before to draw attention to the fact that users can hide their follower/following lists.  However, the checkbox was checked by default, which some users could overlook, and users were made to automatically follow other users.  In response to further critical feedback, Google dropped the auto-follow model and switched to an auto-suggest model, where users are now presented with a list of other users that Google Buzz calculates a user might be interested in following, instead of automatically following them with no user input involved.  Another privacy change is that whereas Google Buzz previously automatically displayed users' shared Google Reader and Picasa items, users  now have to opt-in to sharing such items in Google Buzz.

According to the 2009 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report, 4% of respondents' primary work e-mail addresses are from standard web-based e-mail services provided by companies such as Yahoo, AOL, or Google (Gmail).  Lawyers using Gmail should carefully examine their Google Buzz and Google Profile settings.  Clicking on the "Turn off Buzz" link at the bottom of the screen in Gmail will only hide Buzz in Gmail, and will not affect the display of follower/following information on public Google Profiles; other steps will need to be taken to disable Google Buzz if desired.

Lawyers will want to keep in mind that e-mail is traditionally considered a private medium, whereas messages typed in Google Buzz can be chosen to be publicly accessible to anyone else on the Internet through web searches.  Lawyers will want to consider the extent to which they would like to keep their business and social spheres separate online; for example,  LinkedIn is predominantly used for professional networking, while many users limit their use of Facebook for communicating with family and personal friends.  Google Buzz can blur these lines between social and business, and public and private, by introducing various social networking and microblogging features into users' Gmail e-mail accounts.

Other resources:

The Official Gmail Blog

A new Buzz start-up experience based on your feedback

Gmail Help

Google Buzz

Google Help Forum

Google Buzz and Contacts Help Forum

Cnet.com

Google Buzz: Privacy nightmare

Buzz off: Disabling Google Buzz

Silicon Alley Insider

WARNING: Google Buzz Has A Huge Privacy Flaw

ABA Site-tation

Control Your Online Reputation: Google Profiles

Smarter Social Networking