Does Privacy on Facebook, Google, and Twitter Even Matter? | Fast Company

Does Privacy on Facebook, Google, and Twitter Even Matter? | Fast Company: "What was Google thinking? When the search company launched Buzz a couple of months ago, engineers came up with what they thought was a clever way to kick-start the new social-networking service: They would build Buzz directly into Gmail. Kick-starter number two: Buzz would mine your contacts so you didn't land in a sterile service all by your lonesome (which is what happened with Google Wave). There was only one problem with that plan. Buzz showed the world a list of the people you emailed most often. Apparently no one at Google considered that gaping flaw. What's more, the service was public by default, so anything you said on Buzz would be visible to everyone. Cue Internet kerfuffle, played out mostly over fuming Facebook and Twitter posts. Which was hilarious, because everything you say on Twitter is public by default and the first thing you do after joining Facebook is hand over your email user names and passwords so it can build your social network. Perhaps Google was thinking that we wouldn't mind."