Google will today announce a new confirmation page for its controversial Buzz social networking tool designed to assuage the widespread concerns that have arisen over privacy, according to widespread reports.
The web giant launched the new functionality for its Gmail service in February, allowing users to post messages and share photos and other information with other users.
However, it soon received a storm of complaints from users who felt they had been opted in without their assent and automatically forced to follow certain contacts of theirs.
Soon after, Google tweaked the settings, and then again a couple of days later, in an attempt to address these concerns.
The changes included the removal of the auto follow functionality, to be replaced by a suggested list of contacts to follow. A Buzz tab was also added to Gmail settings so that users were able to hide Buzz from Gmail or disable it completely.
However, the problem with these changes is that they only applied to new users, not those who signed up to Buzz at the very beginning a problem Google is now set to address.
According to the reports, Google will from today present all users signing on with a confirmation page designed to let them choose their own settings, including who they follow, who follows them and whether they want these lists to be kept private or not.
Buzz recently came in for criticism even from US Congressmen, who asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate possible privacy breaches.
