Google is my brain, let’s get that out there. Gmail, Google Tasks, Calendar, Gmail Contacts, Picasa Web Albums, Reader, you name it, I’m probably using that Google service. The first thing I did when I got my Palm Pre was set it to not use my Palm profile for anything and instead sync everything it could with Google. If something is not in my Google Calendar with an alarm, I’m not going to remember to do it. However, I haven’t signed up for Google+, because of privacy issues and my entire life being connected to Google. During the beta phase of Google+ there were horror stories going around on the internet about people having their Google account disabled or even permanently deleted because of some perceived violation of services terms of service. This week, Google announced a new feature that further ups the privacy invasion and creepy factor that keeps me from obtaining a Google+ account.
Now, you can more easily be the creepy guy in the shadows.
Google’s Search, plus Your World includes in your Google search results items that you’ve shared in your Google+ circles, items other people in your circles have shared, and any public information in Plus. That means your personal data that you have only shared with your friends and family appears in your Google search results. If that doesn’t send a shiver up your spine, I’m not quite sure what will. Google is going to introduce an opt-out feature, but I’m unclear as to what exactly that opt-out feature will do. Will it simply mute the Search plus Your World results from showing in your searches or will it actually keep Google from indexing your information from your Google+ data?
My paranoia over signing up for Google+ makes more and more sense every day.
I’m worried Facebook might think “shit, we’re being left behind!” and come up with something even stalkery.
um, not sure what the issue is here. Google clearly states (and paraphrased in this article) that your own search results will show your OWN posts and posts shared with YOU by your circles and anything public. No violation of any privacy here, they’re simply providing a way for you to search for posts shared with you on Google+. I’d call that a big win for this infant social network.
Marsha: You are correct. According to what I’ve seen about this new feature, your private information will only show up in your Google search results. The point in what I wrote above was that the idea of my personal data showing up in Google search results, even if its my own search results, is the part the weirds me out. Too many places for things to go wrong and when I have all of my day-to-day personal information in my Google account, I don’t like the idea of Google search touching my account one bit. And this just adds to the reasons why I don’t want join Google+
Yeah, I agree with Marsha. I don’t see the problem here. Information is still restricted to the circles you’ve assigned it. If your profile information is public, I don’t see the problem with it coming up on search results.
So I think this is stellar innovation.
Google plus is used to share data by gangstalkers, it s also used by the same people to share target videos for harassment