A storm was kicked up this month when Google launched Google Buzz.

It is seen as their attempt to enter social networking, an area traditionally occupied by companies who not long ago were mere saplings compared to mighty the Silicon Valley oak that is Google.

While the web is bursting with bloggers deriding it as an intrusion in to their email, a bigger issue is privacy – and one that highlights the need to be wary about jumping in to social media.

Many were alarmed that, before they had even started to play around with Google Buzz, the system had taken upon itself the duty to add their Google Mail contacts to their profile’s buddy list. A list that is marked from the start as open to the public. I don’t have anyone on my Google account I’m ashamed of, but in my opinion this is taking intrusion to a new level.

One act of ‘digital creepyness’ includes a user reporting the system for adding photos taken from their Android phone that they hadn’t even uploaded yet.

I also have concerns about the mobile Buzz app. Users who log on to the system through the application are given the option to share their location. Thankfully this can be declined but the option to remember the choice is already checked, so anyone too eager to read the note could spend the rest of their time unveiling their current location, post by post.

The location issue is a big one at the moment with the likes of Foursquare and Gowalla meaning that social media junkies are alerting the web of their location way more than is advisable. A friend of mine recently altered Twitter to the fact that she was ‘home’ using Foursquare, it didn’t give her full address but enough that the internet now knew what street she was on. For more on these new kids on the block, see my last post.

As Google Buzz looks like being a launch worse than the iPad, how useful it is for marketing and personal use will take time to decide. What is obvious though is that if Google doesn’t change it soon they will loose the key to social media success – users.