Get the hell off Google Buzz as absolutely soon as possible.

[reddragdiva]

• London bus maps as a plain web page. Way cool. (courtesy pir)

Google Buzz is completely fucked-up and broken shit. It's utterly superfluous ("That is the biggest problem with Buzz — it was invented not for us but for Google"), it comes with default huge privacy flaws for anyone using it, to the point of causing personal physical danger to Gmail users who haven't even switched it on.

I live in my Gmail — I remain a happy user for six years — and I can see why they put it there. But that this is deeply, deeply fucked up stupidity (hey, it worked inside a corporation for the engineers, let's release it as-is into the real world!) rather than culpable negligence (à la Facebook: privacy gets in the way of ads). But that's arguably worse, as it means less chance of stopping the next blithering fuckup on this scale. Google has a blog post up that singularly fails to address the seriousness of the problems or the blithering stupidity in causing them in the first place. If that's really the best they can do for a response, then Google has gone really, really fucking dumb way too quickly.

Switch it off and keep it off. If you have a Google profile (e.g. if you've ever used Google Reader), you'll need to clean that out too, even if you never switched Buzz on.

(Anyone who answers "But Facebook is bad too!" is an idiot with the logical thinking powers of a climate change creationist.)

Finally got the new Solaris box set up sensibly. Mirrored ZFS everywhere, two zones (which install much more smoothly if you haven't trashed your package database). Now setting up CruiseControl to duplicate our previous setup. The fun thing about working for a living is BIG toys to play with. And the coke, hookers and dumptrucks full of money, of course.* [*money, coke and hookers may settle in transit]

I've worked from home yesterday and today. Just because I can.

I've been reading LiveJournal for the first time in about eighteen months. Good Lord.

Anything on this weekend?

Update: I realise geeks are arrogant and contrary by nature, but the victim-blaming going on here is disgusting. Look at yourselves.

It's up to those of us who understand this stuff to help those that don't, not shit on them for not being us.

Update 2: More #buzzfail:

• Your location down to the address being posted automatically.
• It opts you in even if you say no. I thought that sorta shit went out with RealPlayer.
• A journalist claims grabs photos off her Android phone that she'd never uploaded. (arkady: "Right, that's it, I was going to get an Android, but now I'm getting an iPhone!")

(Comments on DreamWidth; comments on LiveJournal.)

Comments

[steer.livejournal.com]

That only happens when you turn it on -- suddenly is hyperbole since it happens when you turn it on the same way a light suddenly comes on IF YOU PRESS THE FUCKING SWITCH -- how fucking stupid do you have to be not to just turn it off again if it bothers you. Sorry, utterly no sympathy for the dense. If you're too stupid to use computers step away from the keyboard rather than blame google.

Really, it's sad to see a nice bit of technology dissed by some dippy mare because she doesn't get it.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

That only happens when you turn it on

TFA mentions that she didn't turn it on in the first place: Oh, yes, I suppose I could opt out of Buzz — which I did when it was introduced, though that apparently has no effect on whether or not I am now using Buzz — but as soon as I did that, all sorts of new people were following me on my Reader! People I couldn’t block, because I am not on Buzz!

I'm not sure about the veracity of her information, since she might be a little unbalanced (or not) and I haven't even looked at Buzz (and I have no idea what Reader might be), but having heard that Facebook reset many of its privacy settings to 'Open' last year, I can believe something like that may have happened.

I'm concerned enough to start poking around now.

[reddragdiva]

Google Reader is an RSS aggregator. I never got into it, but it's pretty popular.

[hestia.livejournal.com]

Gah! I just set up Google Reader a week or so ago.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

Incidentally I went and checked by Google Profile (I can't remember setting one up, ever), and while it is largely empty of all but the basics it had the "Allow people to contact me (without showing my email address)" option on.

I can assure you that if I had ever known about that I'd have switched it off when I set up Gmail in the first place.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

Actually ignore that. Apparently I have hit a "create profile" page. Huh.

[wendolen.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, I think that is the preferable one to have checked, because the alternative is them revealing your email address. :/

[steer.livejournal.com]

What she's trying to avoid saying in that sentence is that she turned on buzz but did not fill in the profile. She also suddenly realised lots of people could read her google reader. They always had been able to but she realised it at that point.

[reddragdiva]

Read the fine link. She had a profile for Google Reader. Google then added a list of her frequent Gmail contacts to it when she didn't switch on Buzz.

[greylock.livejournal.com]

Thanks for that 'physical harm' link by the way. I'd not have seen the 'Turn Off Buzz' link at the bottom of Gmail for ages had I not read the comments therein.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Read link hence opinion of her stupidity -- hard not to read link as for some reason it's been passed on despite dumbnesss. It's a classic case of someone making information public through stupidity and then blaming the tool that finally causes the fact it's public to penetrate their skull. The internet needs trainer wheels for people like that but it does not need specious "OMFG security flaw in writing paper, unprivileged users can read my writing i might die" stories.

[liam-on-linux.livejournal.com]

I'm with Richard on this one, I'm afraid.

[reddragdiva]

And never mind the facts. Did you read the link?

[liam-on-linux.livejournal.com]

Of course!

I am firmly with Scott McNeally on this one. "You have no privacy on the Internet. Get over it."

Gmail per se isn't current, although easily enough snooped, but security by obscurity - false names, "secret" email addresses etc. - are a bloody stupid idea & always were.

Idiots try to hide behind them, thinking they're safe and anonymous, but they're not. They never were.

So something comes along and makes their TOP SEKRIT HIDDEN ADDRESS searchable and OMG the bastards have EXPOSED me I WILL KILL THEM TEH FUCKERS.

[liam-on-linux.livejournal.com]

Arse. Gmail isn't public, I meant, as in searchable. Don't know where that little brainfart came from.

[reddragdiva]

Attest to belated cognition. People expected their email would be kept private, Google publicised people's most frequent contacts without warning. I'm somewhat boggled you didn't see this as problematic.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Only people who clicked the button to do this without reading what it does. Also my light switch turns on or off the light without warning when I press it. I may sue.

[wendolen.livejournal.com]

http://reddragdiva.livejournal.com/542188.html?thread=7439596#t7439596