Google settles privacy suit over ill-fated Buzz program

Nov 3, 2010, 21:45 GMT

San Francisco - Google is to pay 8.5 million dollars to organizations promoting internet privacy to settle a class action lawsuit stemming from its Buzz social networking feature on Gmail, the company has announced.

The web services giant announced the deal to customers in an email sent out late Tuesday. The class action lawsuit stemmed from Google's launch of Buzz last February when it automatically enrolled Gmail users and allowed their email contacts to be seen as a social network without their authorization.

'Just to be clear, this is not a settlement in which people who use Gmail can file to receive compensation,' wrote Google in the email. 'Everyone in the US who uses Gmail is included in the settlement, unless you personally decide to opt out before December 6, 2010.'

'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,' the email explained.

News of the settlement was released as the company is suffering from a spate of privacy snafus.

Last month it revealed that data collection vehicles for its Street View mapping program had collected unencrypted data from wireless networks, including passwords and emails.

Google announced a string of new privacy measures that persuaded the US government to drop privacy investigations, though the company is still the subject of numerous probes in Europe.