FTC settles with Google over botched Buzz roll-out

Search giant Google Inc has settled with US regulators investigating privacy problems that cropped up in its botched roll-out of social network Buzz, the Federal Trade Commission said on Wednesday.

Under the deal, Google agreed to regular, independent privacy audits for the next 20 years.

Launched in February 2010, Buzz initially used its Gmail customers' email contact lists to build a social network of Buzz contacts that the rest of the world could see, which led to an uproar.

Google quickly changed the settings so that contacts were kept private by default.