The ‘Buzz’ doing rounds these days is that Google is paying up a colossal amount of 8.5 million US dollars in a bid to settle the privacy invasion lawsuit over its Buzz feature on Gmail.

Buzz, developed earlier this year as an additional networking feature on Gmail, was touted to be Google’s answer to Twitter. It kicked off with mixed reviews in spite of its much expected growth and boom. However a few months down the lane, we are looking at a much unexpected turn of events.

The complaint that surfaced was that users could access all contact details of people they were connected to through Buzz. And this wasn’t an option but by default. Several outraged Gmail users filed a lawsuit against Google alleging that their personal privacy had been violated. One can’t help but wonder whether this defect was a careless mistake or something casually overlooked.

Besides 30% of the dues being shelled out for legal fees, the settlement indicates a payout of $2500 to seven of the afflicted users each, and the bottom dollar will be split among various organizations involved in online privacy. It also demands the search engine firm to educate its users about their privacy rights. Google released a statement saying it is redefining all its privacy policies so as to make it more absolute and foolproof. The complete settlement is yet to be approved by the federal court.

Following the receipt of a string of privacy complaints, the error has promptly been corrected and made live.

Is Google looking for some damage control? ‘Cause their attempt at creating a niche in social networking has sure backfired. Although we won’t be surprised if this episode is just another minor hitch for the Internet Giant. There’s no denying its enormity despite these occasional hiccups. Let’s just hope it keeps up the usual standards.