Last night I checked out Google Buzz and I noticed a few things. As soon as I signed up I was "Automatically" following 13 people. Nice I was following my ex, which is something I wasn't thrilled about (I changed that fast). I then looked down and saw some chat messages, the funny part is they were not mine but friends. Oh yeah how nice is that you can be a fly on the wall if they didn't change the settings around. You don't even have to be friends with all of the folks chatting just one and poof there it is on YOUR buzz page to read.

Here is my view last night logging on - note the chat at the bottom (circled in pink). I'm friends with the one blocked out in black but no clue who the green guy is and he started the chat. Notice next to it the "buzz - public" that means just that its PUBLIC!

Click to resize:

So I did join in on one chat and I tried to make that chat private but nope couldn't do it and I think only the original poster can. Yeah that isn't cool.

Ok here are some ways to make your Buzz more private and secure. Notice above the circled in blue at the top of the picture above where it says "View Connected Sites" click on that and you can change some settings.

One of those is your "google chat" you want to change that. Notice there is no option to make it totally private or to make it private to only the one you are chatting with.

Now when you go to do a chat you can also change it there who you would like to see it:

If you mark it "private" they you can choose to "Post to a group"

As you can see its not like I can make a private chat to say only stardogg not unless I make him his own little group of one.

Basically watch what you say on google buzz because others might be watching what you say also because anyone you are following will see it. You also have to remember that say I was to have a chat with Stardogg but I only have 5 I'm following yet he has 25 he is following well all 25 + my 5 will see the chat. So the folks who could be reading it could be great in numbers. Perfect example is the first picture the chat circled - I only know the one person and he is one I was "auto" following when I joined google buzz. Bottom line is there really is no total private chat on buzz since you have no control over the other persons settings. In my opinion its a huge security issue.