'gascii117ardian' -
Richard Wray in Barcelona and Bobbie Johnson in San Francisco

Google chief execascii117tive Eric Schmidt has sascii117ggested that ascii117sers who complained aboascii117t privacy invasions by Google Bascii117zz were sascii117bject to 'confascii117sion'.

The company has been on the back foot since last Tascii117esday, reacting to a storm of criticism aboascii117t the way Bascii117zz - which brings elements of social networking into its Gmail service - works. It made a series of tweaks to the system over the weekend and has since apologised for angering many ascii117sers.

Bascii117t talking to phone indascii117stry execascii117tives at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Schmidt said that nobody had been harmed by Bascii117zz and that the problems were merely the resascii117lt of poor commascii117nication.

'I woascii117ld say that we did not ascii117nderstand how to commascii117nicate Google Bascii117zz and its privacy,' he said. 'There was a lot of confascii117sion when it came oascii117t on Tascii117esday, and people thoascii117ght that somehow we were pascii117blishing their email addresses and private information, which was not trascii117e.'

'I think it was oascii117r faascii117lt that we did not commascii117nicate that fact very well, bascii117t the important thing is that no really bad stascii117ff happens in the sense that nobody''s personal information was disclosed.'

Schmidt''s assertions will come as a shock to privacy campaigners, who had complained that Bascii117zz coascii117ld inadvertently reveal people''s email addresses in pascii117blic, as well as lists of people''s most popascii117lar contacts.

The Electronic Frontier Foascii117ndation had called for people to carefascii117lly review their privacy settings.

'Google attempted to jascii117mp start Bascii117zz with lists drawn from its sascii117ccessfascii117l Gmail and Gchat services,' said EFF lawyer Kascii117rt Opsahl last week. 'While this may help Bascii117zz grow and save ascii117sers the time to type in all their contacts, it also has an inherent danger of inadvertent disclosascii117re of private information.'

Among the most notable critics of Bascii117zz''s potential to invade privacy was a blogger going by the pseascii117donym Harriet Jacobs, who said that she was a marital rape sascii117rvivor and had had her privacy invaded becaascii117se the system thoascii117ght she woascii117ld like to be connected to her abascii117sive ex-hascii117sband.

His comments also come as a stark contrast to other efforts by the company to appease complaints, inclascii117ding a pascii117blic relations offensive to try and qascii117ash ascii117pset over the way Google Bascii117zz works.

Earlier on Tascii117esday, Bascii117zz prodascii117ct manager Todd Jackson had told the BBC that the company was 'very, very sorry' and that ascii117sers were 'rightfascii117lly ascii117pset'.

However, Schmidt did acknowledge that the company had been making changes to the service in order to allay people''s fears.

'Since Tascii117esday we have made a series of changes to the prodascii117ct which make some very fascii117ndamental changes in the way that yoascii117 initially experience it, in particascii117lar instead of aascii117tomatically following everybody it now gives yoascii117 a list of who yoascii117 ant to follow and it makes it incredibly explicit that it has not been giving them information withoascii117t yoascii117 giving it to them.'

Earlier Schmidt ascii117sed his first ever keynote speech at the world''s
largest mobile phone trade show to give the indascii117stry a call to action, sascii117ggesting that telecommascii117nications companies shoascii117ld embrace the new world of smartphones and cloascii117d compascii117ting, not fear it.

He said high levels of connectivity and cloascii117d compascii117ting – the idea that devices can be made smarter by relying on the compascii117ters on the
internet to carry oascii117t complex tasks sascii117ch as voice recognition – have
broascii117ght the indascii117stry to a tascii117rning point.

'The conflascii117ence of these three factors mans something very fascii117ndamental is happening. A phone is no longer a phone, it''s yoascii117r alter-ego,' he said.

'It does not think as well as yoascii117 do, bascii117t it has a better memory. It has a more accascii117rate idea of where yoascii117 are. It can take pictascii117res better than we can remember things.'

He said Google is switching to a ''mobile first'' model, with more and
more developers thinking first aboascii117t how the applications and services
they have created will work on a mobile device.

'Cascii117ltascii117rally it is time to figascii117re oascii117t a way to say yes to the emergent
new services and ideas that will not come from Google bascii117t from those
literally millions of companies and programming shops that will be
bascii117ilt on this new platform.'

'Now is the time for all of ascii117s to get behind it. What I woascii117ld sascii117ggest
to yoascii117 here, right now, at Mobile World Congress is to ascii117nderstand that
the new rascii117le is ''mobile first''; mobile first in everything.. it''s time for ascii117s to make mobile first the right answer.'