Following the recent lawsuit filed by two law firms in California against Google, the counterparts managed to reach an agreement. On a first instance, Google will pay $8.5 million to organizations ‘promoting privacy education and policy on the web’ after having made the necessary changes to Buzz, completely removing the privacy threats.

Google says,

Shortly after Google Buzz launched, we heard from a number of people who were concerned about privacy. In addition, we were sued by a group of Buzz users and recently reached a settlement in this case. Today we’re emailing all Gmail users in the U.S. as part of this settlement.

The settlement acknowledges that we quickly changed the service to address users’ concerns. In addition, Google has committed $8.5 million to an independent fund, most of which will support organizations promoting privacy education and policy on the web. Just to be clear, this is not a settlement in which people who use Gmail can file to receive compensation. Everyone in the U.S. who uses Gmail is included in the settlement, unless you personally decide to opt out before December 6, 2010. The Court will consider final approval of the agreement on January 31, 2011. More detailed information and instructions approved by the court, including instructions about how to opt out, object, or comment, are available at www.BuzzClassAction.com.

Although numerous claims were made on privacy issues against Facebook and Google, the two successfully managed to respond quickly and appropriately when accused of sharing information with third parties.  It’s extremely important in this day and age, when information can be spread for the better, or worse, very quickly.  Companies are becoming better able to respond to certain demands around privacy.