Google to pay $8.5 million for Buzz privacy violation

Google received a preliminary approval of its $8.5 million settlement of a class action brought against Google Buzz. The preliminary approval was granted by federal district court Judge James Ware on October 7, and Google revealed the news with a press release on Tuesday. Google also took the unusual step of contacting all Gmail users via email.

Inasmuch as ordinary people cannot get compensation from the class action suit Google will create an $8.5 million fund that will be used to distribute awards to organizations "focused on" internet privacy or privacy education. It will also be used to pay the lawyers and the people who sued.

The suit was complied of several cases filed by users over Google Buzz which was launched February this year. By default Buzz automatically exposed users' most frequent Gmail contacts to the public interwebs. However, users could opt out of this using the checkbox. But many users complained that the checkbox was badly displayed.

After this, Google agreed to move the checkbox to a more prominent position, and it changed the way it handles user contacts. But the suits came nonetheless. The court will decide on final approval for the settlement in January.