Another problem comes from the use and abuse of opt-out systems in the USA where the consent of the concerned people is presumed, always in favor of the company, more rarely in the interest of the user, and very often justified by a pretexted interest.

Whereas in Europe, opt-in is generally the rule. The concerned people got to clearly express her consent.

Mixing both opt-out culture with lax privacy rules has a potential of creating huge privacy disasters like Buzz’s one.

Wondering if there’s any class-action engaged against Google Inc. in regards to Buzz monumental privacy breaches, though.

users should have to set their accounts that way. we all know they are doing this to increase their value, but come on facebook and google, you guys are worth more than most countries in the world, you do not need to increase your valuation at the expense of your users.