As soon as the announcement and release of Google Buzz hit the masses, users quickly recognized a “security flaw” in the service.  Google shares the final diagnosis like this: “In particular there’s been concern from some people who thought their contacts were being made public without their knowledge (in particular the lists of people they follow, and the people following them). In addition, others felt they had too little control over who could follow them and were upset that they lacked the ability to block people who didn’t yet have public profiles from following them.”  So what have they done to combat contact privacy issues?

1. More visible option to not show followers/people you follow on your public profile

2. Ability to block anyone who starts following you

3. More clarity on which of your followers/people you follow can appear on your public profile

In addition to these changes, Google has also revamped the “start-up experience,” the initial ‘Welcome to Google Buzz’ screen.  An auto-suggest model replaces the auto-follow model, allowing the user to pick and choose who they want to follow instead of Buzz automatically adding their contacts and chat buddies to their follow list.  Also, “If you don’t want to share the lists of people who are following you and people you are following publicly on your profile, you can opt out at any time from the [new and improved] edit profile page.”  Some other changes include: “Buzz will no longer connect your public Picasa Web Albums and Google Reader shared items automatically” and now there’s a Buzz tab in GMail Settings where “you’ll be able to hide Buzz from Gmail or disable it completely.”  All these changes in its first week, it’s quite impressive; Google is definitely taking to heart loud user feedback.  And all of this seems to be resulting in a better Buzz experience so far.

[Via GoogleBlog, here & here]