Does Google Buzz offer better privacy than Facebook?

During Google's Tuesday demonstration, it was suggested that Buzz assembles the initial, default list of followers based on such factors as common interests, which suggested that Google scanned the contents of Gmail messages. Google's spokesperson indicated to Betanews that such a suggestion was in error: "We don't look at the content of messages. Instead, we automatically select people based on how often you e-mail and chat with them, not the content."

Finally, noting that Google adds advertisements to Buzz content similar to how it adds ads to search results, we were curious as to how the company would apply an existing element of its general privacy policy, to Buzz users. The general policy states, "We may combine the information you submit under your account with information from other Google services or third parties in order to provide you with a better experience and to improve the quality of our services."

We already know from Google's own announcement that if you're a Buzz user, then what you do on other Google services -- for example, adding a photo to Picasa -- will be "buzzed" to other members. Will this mean that Buzz users may be compelled to join other Google services to enjoy the full benefits, and in so doing, enable Google to combine the information from all these activities into a kind of target platform?

Apparently, the answer there is yes to all counts: "Buzz is designed to work with some other Google services, like Picasa, as well as some third-party sites like Flickr," Betanews was told. "Our goal is to make Buzz a fully open, distributed conversation system, and that includes connecting with a variety of services that are popular among our users. Right now, comments write back to Google Reader: The comment streams are totally merged, so if you comment on someone's shared item in Reader, that same comment will appear in Buzz, and vice versa. That is not the case for other services connected to Buzz. In the future, we'd like to enable this for other connected sites as well."

That suggests that Google Labs has plans to expand the Buzz API so that services that open themselves up to Buzz activity may become featured in Buzz members' buzz lists. What we will not know yet, until someone else becomes the first to try this out, is whether this opening-up process will, in turn, broadcast a Buzz members' activities on another service, through Buzz, to another Buzz member by default. There's where the second round of red flags will inevitably be raised.