Talking smack about your co-workers via Google Talk (formerly known as GChat)? You might wanna eat your words – a privacy bug in Google’s instant messaging system is apparently delivering those messages to the wrong recipients, giving Internet gossipers worldwide quite the freak out.
The glitch was reportedly noted early this morning when users logged onto their Google accounts to find that their messages were being sent to unintended recipients, or vice versa. This includes chats sent via mobile apps and Web clients. The issue seems to affect Google Talk users who haven’t updated to Hangouts, with rerouted messages going to anyone from friends in your contacts list to complete strangers.
For more details on individual cases, you can check out Google Hangouts’ product forum to see how the glitch is affecting various users. One user, Danny Hua, explained that he began receiving messages from his friend that were clearly directed to her sister. “I could only see my friend’s side of the conversation,” he wrote. “I responded to her via the app, but could not see her responses to me.” Google is recommending users keep tabs on the Apps Status Dashboard for the latest update.
As for the rest of the Internet world? Well, flipping out is one way to put it.
my gchats are going to multiple people when i try to gchat one person. THIS IS A TERRIFYING SITUATION.
— laura royden (@roydraging) September 26, 2013
fyi @gmail‘s gchat function is all screwed up, with some hilarious and some VERY AWKWARD results right now. FYIIII I KNEW YOU WERE TROUBLE
— anthony chang (@pelossus) September 26, 2013
Until Google has announced that the bug has been fixed, you might want to lay low on the smash talk today on Google Talk. Or at least use secret names.
