During the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)’s Wednesday roundtable discussion about privacy, the agency’s outgoing Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour said that it was “irresponsible” on the part of Google to have introduced its social-networking service Buzz, without conferring with the Gmail users.

Google’s February-introduced Buzz service stoked customers’ indignation before the company discontinued the automatic assigning of the users’ most-commonly-used Gmail contacts to Buzz – a move that opened up the information to other users.

Noting that the comments about Google’s “irresponsible conduct” reflected her own views and not the FTC’s, Harbour said that in spite of the fact that “protecting consumer privacy is of utmost importance,” the message has “unfortunately” not hit home with “many of the companies that consumers look to as leaders - and that we expect to be leaders.”

Harbour, who is leaving the agency April 6, further said that when the Gmail system was introduced by Google, consumers who signed up for the email service hardly ever expected that their data would spell a potential use for social networking.

Meanwhile, saying that user transparency and control are “top of mind” for Google, a company spokesman said in a statement that quick product improvements were made to address the Buzz-related concerns of the users.

The most recent roundtable by FTC is part of the agency’s final phase of discussions which will lead to its privacy-related recommendations.