Do You Trust Google to Know Who Your Friends Are?

Google has been getting a lot of heat lately, since bloggers have raised eyebrows over a recent change to Google Reader that allows the application to 'know who your friends are' based on whether you've chatted with them in Google Talk or not.

Sharing items, such as links and blog clips with others, using Google Reader has been possible since 2006, but you had to know the URL to see them before. However, last week a change to the application allowed anyone in the user's Google Talk contact list. The question is, if you've had a conversation with someone in Google Talk, are they presumed to be a friend that should be able to see anything you've shared to those who you really consider to be your friend? Everyone who has been reading the Internet news on DJ lately would know all about Facebook's Beacon fiasco when the inauspicious software was enabling 'friends' in your network to know when you purchased something on a Facebook partner site. It may be safe to say that social networking users are a little bit more wary, and the collective Internet consciousness seems to police these kinds of features, blowing the whistle when necessary. Google has taken a step back and posted information on their website, based in the 'helpful feedback' that they received about the sharing feature, offering a workaround and a message to concerned users that appears to be on a responsible track. Danny Sullivan, editor of the Search Engine Land blog provides a good breakdown of the features, including pictures of the features in question. He also sums up the general feeling that many of the concerned bloggers probably felt in some way.

Google Reader never asked if I wanted to be connected with my friends, i.e., whether I wanted to have Google itself start behind-the-scenes making relationships in Google Reader for me with people that previously were restricted to chat. It's disconcerting.

Sharing things on the Internet is an act that many users don't give a second thought to. Facebook's success could be proof of that, as it continues to inanely tell you about all kinds of actions that people in your friends list have performed, yet the users don't seem to be put off by it and, Beacon aside, it does have some very granular security features. The problem is, the software doesn't always tell you what the effects of your actions are, Google's new Reader feature appears to suffer from this. Many of the blogs on the subject, complain about the fact that prior to the workaround, there was no clear way to opt out. The workaround appears to be on the right track, even though bloggers like Sullivan have suggested that perhaps the feature should be dropped altogether, until users can 'specifically and deliberately create a list of contacts that you do want to share material with.' It's likely that users of Google Reader, who have become aware of the news, might think a little bit more about those public facing items until they have that ability.