Discussion on:

Get the security buzz about Google Buzz

Does the growing disdain for privacy that appears to infest Google make you as nervous about Google Buzz as it does me? Have you been caught unawares by the opt-out nature of the public sharing feature of Google Buzz? How do you think it compares to Facebook for security and privacy?

From what you've wrote (and that is all I can go on since I haven't had a Google account in about a month now) I'd say it actually fares worse then Facebook for security and privacy with the only redeeming grace being that you can still permanently delete your Google account. The fact that I cannot completely delete my Facebook account is very disturbing and is pretty much one of the few reasons I'm still there. If I cannot completely get rid of it, I might as well use it. At least for now.

Yup, I found that you can't "deactivate" a Facebook account. The deactivate link/box just doesn't work. This is not right because your info is out there and you should have the right to limit who has access to even limited info about yourself.
There was several months, after a hacker got into both Facebook and Twitter, that I couldn't use Facebook at all--it was totally useless. So, I decided to deactivate the account, which was the only method offered to get rid of the account, and that didn't work. This is really frustrating to me. It makes me really hesitant to sign up for any other "social" networking account. If my info is out there, I want full control over it, or I'm not going to play the game.

Look here:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=info&gid=16929680703

Note that this is a user page on FB and not official. Also note well his one caution: once you delete you acct., you must stay out of it for two weeks; if you try to log in during this "cooling off" period, it will cancel the acct. deletion. Most people, of course, want to check right away to see if it worked and inadvertently abort the process :-\ ...and then complain that it doesn't work.

Due to this kind of questions that people ask, google now put it easy to choose not to get public your contacts. The people just have to read the dialog that asks for your profile (it's not that much text).
For the posts, just select private...
I see like a better choice buzz than facebook for myself
pd. Sorry for my english...

I'm been considering stopping using Google mail for a while now - I trust Google less and less. This just takes me one step closer and makes me trust them even less...