My apologies to the handful of people who were following me on Google Buzz–I didn’t block you because you suck (in fact, I know all of you, and you’re awesome!) but apparently a manual unfollow-and-block is a step in the only way to actually turn Buzz off–that nice button at the bottom that says "Turn off Buzz" doesn’t actually remove you, it just takes the interface off YOUR screen–and until they do a lot more to control the privacy issues, I’m stompin’ that as dead as I can. 

It’s not that I have particularly much to hide–my e-mail life is surprisingly dull!–but among the e-mails I most frequently use are my agent and my editor, and it strikes me as unprofessional to float their personal contact info ’round the world. (99.9% of you are terribly polite and pleasant individuals who I’m pretty sure are here for the random eggplants, but I’ve run into a couple people over the years who are too-clearly counting the seconds of any conversation until they can ask if I’ll send their manuscript to my agent, thereby bypassing the slushpile, and since I don’t do that sort of thing, I would as soon not be a mechanism for it all unwilling.) 

I am of the opinion that privacy on the internet is like twelve-year-old boys and porn…they’re going to find a way to see it, there’s no stopping them, the issue is not whether they will find it…but one is still obligated to make it difficult for them, out of a combination of concern and…well…sportsmanship, for lack of a better term.

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