Privacy Group Pings FTC About Google Buzz

The Electronic Privacy Information Center complained to the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday about Google's new Buzz social networking service, saying it violates federal consumer protection law.

Since launching Google Buzz as part of Gmail a week ago, the search company has come under fire for automatically creating public circles of friends for users based on their most frequent Gmail contacts. Over the weekend, Google altered the service to merely suggest contacts for its users' social networks. Despite the changes, EPIC said privacy violations remain because Google automatically signs up Gmail users for Buzz, rather than waiting for them to do so themselves, or "opt in" for the service. The company does give users the option to disable the new service.

EPIC wants the FTC to require that Google make Buzz an opt-in service and to stop using Gmail address book contacts to compile social networking lists.