Canada's Privacy Commissioner, who has already locked horns with Facebook, is demanding search-engine giant Google Inc. explain how it will address privacy problems in its new Google Buzz social-networking tool.
Google's introduction of the Buzz service last week has been a privacy debacle, as it publicly revealed the most-used Gmail contacts of users unless they switched a hard-to-locate setting.
The company has responded to complaints that the new Twitter-like service could unwittingly expose everyone from cheating spouses to dissidents in China or Iran by apologizing and issuing two fixes.
Now, Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart is asking the company to explain how it will address that and other privacy concerns, and warns she is watching to see that Google follows Canadian privacy law.
"We have seen a storm of protest and outrage over alleged privacy violations and my office also has questions about how Google Buzz has met the requirements of privacy law in Canada," she said in a statement.
Ms. Stoddart has not yet launched a formal investigation of Google Buzz, but big social-networking sites have learned it's best not to simply click "ignore."
She launched an investigation into Facebook for keeping users' personal information even after they closed accounts. Facebook agreed last August to work over this year to address the commissioner's concerns, but Ms. Stoddart launched a new investigation in January into complaints that new default settings lower privacy protection.
A Canadian law on electronic privacy gives her powers to conduct investigations, privacy audits, and to seek Federal Court orders to force companies to comply with Canadian privacy laws.
Although Ms. Stoddart complained in her statement that that Google could have avoided some problems if it had consulted her office before it released Buzz, a company spokesman, Wendy Rozeluk, said in an e-mail that Google has an "open line" with her.
"We had an in-depth discussion with her about how Google Buzz works and about the changes we made. We're always happy to hear from privacy commissioners in Canada and in other countries," Ms. Rozeluk said.
The company has already made easier to find the controls for setting information that is released to other users. It has also changed some services so they are more user-controlled than automatic.
"We responded immediately to our users' feedback and made product improvements to address their concerns. It's still early, and we have a long list of improvements on the way," Ms. Rozeluk said.