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How Your Google Buzz (and Reader) Comments End Up Everywhere

While Google Buzz seemed like a perfectly logical and exciting next step for Google, one thing makes it totally worthless: the lack of privacy.

You may think of it like Twitter, where you know that you can choose to post things privately or publicly. Or you may think of it like Google Reader, where your shared items are on a page with your comments.

You may have already seen this article on the privacy flaw that allows people to see who you're following and who's following you (highly recommended if you haven't seen it). What you may not know is that your comments on any public posts end up on the poster's public profile. People who set up a profile for Buzz may not have their Buzz showing up on their profile, but anyone who has set up a public Google profile gets a "Buzz" tab on their profile, and all of your comments show up there on their public, searchable profile...with your first and last name.


So in the screenshot above, my friend Doug has his comment show up on my public profile, with his full name and no way for either him to opt out of his comments showing publicly and no way for me to even stop my Buzz from showing up on my public profile. And even worse, even if you turn Buzz off completely, your comments in Reader still show up on the public profile if the person who shared the article has Buzz turned on.

I've looked all over the place to see if there's a way to turn off that Buzz tab on your public profile, or if you can let your comment be anonymous the way you can in Reader, but I haven't found one. If you want to comment in Buzz at all, you have to have the "Display my full name so I can be found in search" box checked.

Let me know if the comments if I've missed a way to turn this off. Otherwise, I would recommend turning off Buzz entirely until Google makes your Buzz account and your profile totally private. Facebook has this option; there's no reason Google shouldn't as well.
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