Google are releasing a new add-on to their popular email service Google Mail.

Google Buzz is a real time social network that is being automatically added to ALL Google Mail accounts over the next few days.

Bullying UK is concerned that younger users may not be aware of the privacy implications of Google Buzz.

Buzz is a lot like Facebook or Twitter, people can become your friend and you can become theirs, you have a Google Profile that many people would have created years ago but may have forgotten about, leaving the information "public". This includes photographs, Twitter, Facebook and even news stories you have shared..... all open to the world.

When Buzz is added onto your Gmail account all that "Profile" information is brought into Buzz and shared with anyone you have made a friends connection with. You may have to reconfirm your Twitter and Flickr address but your Google Reader and Picasa Photos feeds seem to be automatically imported which is a concern to us.

Buzz is Public by Default

Google wants users of Buzz to feed updates into its public Real Time Search Engine, but this presents all sorts of problems for younger users of the service. We would suggest only posting updates on Buzz that are marked as "Private" click the "Public" icon under the update window to change how an update will appear in Buzz.

We think it's great to share information with people you trust, and having control over what you share and when, but please double check what information you are automatically sharing with Google Buzz or Google's services in general.

In Buzz you can click the Connected Sites link to see a list of services Buzz will import from, click EDIT and you can set if that feed will be exposed to the entire world (Including Google Search) or just to the people you confirm as a friend!

You can change what information Google displays on your Google Profile by visiting your Account page, please be careful what information and feeds you share on your Google Profile and set information or feeds private that you would like to hide from the entire world.

Once again, Google Buzz is a public system, unless you specifically set "Private" on updates or feeds all your updates will be viewable and searchable by the entire world!

Stay Safe...and if you would like to see our Buzz updates you can friend us on our profile.

Bullying UK is the UK's leading anti-bullying charity and provides a huge range of advice on cyberbullying and cyber safety. We rely on your donations to continue our work, please give what you can.