Erick Schonfeld at tech news blog TechCrunch highlights yet another potential privacy hole in Google’s young social network (which has already been the cause of much concern). This time, it looks like sending an @reply under certain circumstances can reveal a user’s email address. Here’s how:
If you select a name or account that is not public, Buzz will fill in with their private email. For example, I wanted to direct a comment at TechCrunch writer MG Siegler, so I typed in “@mg” and up came three of his different emails. I picked his TechCrunch email, not realizing that his public profile is linked to a different Gmail account. What this means is that the 231 people following me on Buzz can all see MG’s private email address in my comment even if they had no direct connection to him before.
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