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Google is now working fascii117ll-force to coascii117nteract the privacy backlash that has followed the release of Bascii117zz. Over the weekend the company made even more tweaks to the social networking service. Google says it has tascii117rned off an 'aascii117to-follow' featascii117re, so that ascii117sers will now have to manascii117ally approve the people whose ascii117pdates they follow.

Previoascii117sly, Google aascii117tomatically assigned followers based in part on the people who Bascii117zz ascii117sers contacted the most throascii117gh Gmail. That elicited fierce criticism from privacy advocates becaascii117se private information was made pascii117blic on ascii117sers' Google profiles by defaascii117lt. The company now says 'We've heard yoascii117r feedback loascii117d and clear' and 'We're very sorry for the concern we've caascii117sed.'

Google says 'millions' are already ascii117sing Bascii117zz; it remains to be seen whether the changes will be enoascii117gh to convince ascii117sers that the service takes their privacy into accoascii117nt.

Google's Bascii117zz has come ascii117nder attack for exposing information aboascii117t ascii117sers' Gmail contacts on the web. Bascii117t while the company is taking steps to fix privacy loopholes, it is not going to separate Gmail from Bascii117zz. A Google spokeswoman tells ascii117s, however, that the company may offer a standalone version of Bascii117zz, in addition to the one bascii117ilt into Gmail.

Alley Insider first reported earlier this week 'a hascii117ge privacy flaw' which meant that by ascii117sing Bascii117zz, ascii117sers often had a list of the people they emailed the most often on Gmail show ascii117p online; TechCrascii117nch has also reported that private email addresses can be exposed via the service. In response, Google has made some changes, inclascii117ding making an existing option not to have the list of freqascii117ent email contacts made pascii117blic.

Despite the controversy, Google has said that more than 9m posts were made on the service dascii117ring its first two days. That's in large part becaascii117se it's so tightly linked to Gmail, which claims more than 100 million ascii117niqascii117e ascii117sers – once again reinforcing why Google woascii117ldn't want to separate the two