0 Google finally settles the Buzz lawsuit for $8.5M

Did you hear about lawsuit Google was facing , class-action lawsuit filed in a San Jose, California federal court over its Google Buzz social networking service. According to the San Francisco Chronicle the lawsuit alleges Google Buzz violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) -- a law passed in 1984 that is intended to protect individuals against companies that compromise the confidentiality of a computer.

But now things are cool as the lawsuit has been settled .However, Google has in fact agreed to pay for the plaintiffs’ lawyer fees and other expenses, along with a commitment to establish an $8.5 million ‘Common Fund’, that will provide financial support to organizations who are advocating user privacy, Internet privacy policy and those organizations that are actively educating users about the intricacies and importance of online privacy. Furthermore, Google has also stated that, the search giant will step up its efforts to educate more and more users about its privacy policies in regards to Google Buzz. The whole fiasco began when users discovered that, their Gmail contacts were available as public view, in the form of ‘Followers’, for all other Gmail users to see.
Check the mail sent by Google below :

Google rarely contacts Gmail users via email, but we are making an exception to let you know that we've reached a settlement in a lawsuit regarding Google Buzz (http://buzz.google.com), a service we launched within Gmail in February of this year.

Shortly after its launch, we heard from a number of people who were concerned about privacy. In addition, we were sued by a group of Buzz users and recently reached a settlement in this case.

The settlement acknowledges that we quickly changed the service to address users' concerns. In addition, Google has committed $8.5 million to an independent fund, most of which will support organizations promoting privacy education and policy on the web. We will also do more to educate people about privacy controls specific to Buzz. The more people know about privacy online, the better their online experience will be.

Just to be clear, this is not a settlement in which people who use Gmail can file to receive compensation. Everyone in the U.S. who uses Gmail is included in the settlement, unless you personally decide to opt out before December 6, 2010. The Court will consider final approval of the agreement on January 31, 2011. This email is a summary of the settlement, and more detailed information and instructions approved by the court, including instructions about how to opt out, object, or comment, are available at http://www.BuzzClassAction.com

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This mandatory announcement was sent to all Gmail users in the United States as part of a legal settlement and was authorized by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

Google Inc. | 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway | Mountain View, CA 94043

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