Privacy experts praise Google+ rollout so far

[faith_michele]

Privacy experts praise Google+ rollout so far

By Juan Carlos Perez, July 8, 2011

IDG News Service - After major privacy failures in its Buzz and Street View services, Google has hit the right notes with its deliberate, measured roll out of its new Google+ social networking site, according to privacy experts.

By making Google+ available to a very limited set of initial testers, Google is showing that it learned its lesson from the privacy fiasco that followed the sudden, widespread launch of its Twitter-like Buzz service, which earned the company boos and lawsuits from end users, and investigations and fines from government agencies for unilaterally and publicly disclosing previously hidden Gmail connections.

The conservative approach to Google+'s availability is allowing Google to gather valuable feedback and patch bugs, including privacy holes, before making the site available to a mass audience, when glitches would have exponential consequences, experts said in e-mail interviews.

It is a welcome sign from a company that has also caught heat from privacy advocates and government watchdogs due to its now ended but years-long, unintended capture of e-mails, passwords and Web traffic from unprotected WiFi networks by the cars that take its Street View maps photos.

More.....

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9218277/Privacy_experts_praise_Google_rollout_so_far