Theres been a lot of chatter on the line this week about the launch of Google Buzz, which has been heralded as google's answer to twitter and other social networking services. For google buzz to succeed, it will need to addresss the early concerns of privacy and spam potential.

One of the most pressing concerns is that it is not easy to find out how to change some of the security presets, and once you have someone following you, it can expose all your email contacts to that follower. Other people have found that their work and personal contacts have now been merged into one big social networking melting pot, exposing their photos, personal blogs and contact lists to all current, previous and future friends, family and employers whether they like it or not. Many have had to create secondary email accounts to segragate the contact lists, or remove buzz altogether from their profile.

If you are worried about the privacy and security aspect of Google Buzz, here's a little tip for you: theres a tiny link at the bottom of the gmail page which says 'turn off buzz'. Click this to remove Buzz from your google account. Personally I will be waiting for version 2 before trying it out again.