April 18th, 2007
Google to Calendar users: Read the instructions
In the wake of risky Google Calendar use by corporate staff within enterprises, Google wants to make one thing clear: Google takes user privacy very seriously, especially the Calendar team.
In Google Office enterprise security snafu I discuss how sensitive information about private corporate events is being shared, unwittingly or not, via company postings within the Google Calendar application.
The Google Calendar team is on the case and writes to advise Google Apps, Premiere that is, to the rescue:
This is exactly the type of mistake we help IT administrators in organizations prevent through the business version of Google Calendar, which is part of the Google Apps platform of hosted applications. In the cases cited, each worker had taken their business event information and put it on a personal calendar that they chose to make publicly accessible.
If businesses deploy Google Calendar through Google Apps, IT administrators can choose settings so that users can only share free/busy information with outside viewers, or nothing at all.
For those corporate staffers who nevertheless insist on going their own way, the Google Calendar team reiterates the Calendar "how-to," in which Google has supreme confidence:
As for those individuals who are out there using Google Calendar for their personal calendar, their calendar information is private unless they specify otherwise. We make it clear to users what each sharing setting means. Users can grant a great degree of access — entire calendars or certain events to friends, family, colleagues, etc — without making the information fully public and searchable on the web. Currently, if you do decide to make your calendar public, a dialog box appears — "Are you sure you want to share this calendar with everyone? Public calendars appear in Google Calendar searches" — at the time you try to click "Share all information on this calendar with everyone." You cannot proceed without acknowledging that box. We also have FAQs to make sure our users understand what "public" really means.
Is that so hard?
SEE: Google vs. Microsoft Office? Yay! Google Spreadsheets gets charts
ALSO: Google aims to usurp campus email systems and Google undercuts Microsoft Office and Google Apps data risks: Security vs. privacy
