Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour, who is leaving the FTC next month, ripped into Google for the launch of its Buzz social-networking tool in February, and she complained that many other Internet firms, including Facebook and Microsoft, aren't encrypting the consumer data that lives in their clouds.

"I am especially concerned that technology companies are learning harmful lessons from each other's attempts to push the privacy envelop," she said during an FTC privacy workshop. "Even the most respected and popular online companies, the ones who claim to respect privacy, continue to launch products where the guiding privacy policy seems to be, 'Throw it up against the wall and see if it sticks.'"

The launch of Google Buzz was “irresponsible conduct” by a company considered “one of the greatest technology leaders of our time,” Ms. Harbour said, in making her remarks, which she said are her own and not the views of the FTC. Ms. Harbour is leaving the FTC on April 6.