Google and privacy

[Purple Lady]

I signed up for Google+ so I could occasionally do reviews on Google Play. I made sure no one can comment on any posts I make even though I don't make any posts, no one can contact me, and my profile shows only

Worked at none of your business
Attended none of your business
Lives in none of your business

The only problem now is that Google+ Users Can Now Email You Without Your Gmail Address

Here's how to prevent it - link

The only thing I use my gmail for is for my android devices because Google knows too much about you already. Letting people email me without me giving them my email address is too much.

[Ravensknight]

One more reason to not sign up for G+.

Glad there is a stopgap solution anyway.

[AndrewH]

I thought Google+ always had the ability to send a user an email via a link on their profile (text bubble icon next to the Hangouts icon under their name).

At any rate, I'm having a hard time getting worked up over this. Oh no, someone emailed me! The horror! Pressing delete is so difficult! Hardly an invasion of my privacy.

(Somewhat OT) I imagine in the years ahead Google will merge Gmail and Google+ together.

[Purple Lady]

Someone getting your email address that you didn't want to have is a huge problem if you are being stalked. If you are being stalked you probably shouldn't be on Google+ anyway, but that's your business. And the stalking may have started after you had a Google + profile.

There are also people I wouldn't want to have my regular email address because I don't want to get spam. I have about six email addresses I use regularly and only two get any spam at all. Real estate agents and mortgage people are the reason my one email address gets spam now.

[AndrewH]

If you receive an email from someone outside your circles, it will be filtered into the Social category of the inbox (if enabled) and only after you respond or add them to your circles, can they start another conversation with you.

Delete the one-time unwanted email and you'll never hear from that sender (via Google+ > email) again.

This is assuming one hasn't decided to opt out, of course.

/shrug

[Ntsimp]

I have an Android phone, but I don't even have a gmail account. I get by just fine installing open source apps that have apks for download on F-Droid or Google Code. I'm sure Google knows way too much about my phone anyway, but at least they don't have an email address for me.

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

Someone getting your email address that you didn't want to have is a huge problem if you are being stalked. If you are being stalked you probably shouldn't be on Google+ anyway, but that's your business. And the stalking may have started after you had a Google + profile.

There are also people I wouldn't want to have my regular email address because I don't want to get spam. I have about six email addresses I use regularly and only two get any spam at all. Real estate agents and mortgage people are the reason my one email address gets spam now.

Originally Posted by AndrewH

Delete the one-time unwanted email and you'll never hear from that sender (via Google+ > email) again.

This is assuming one hasn't decided to opt out, of course.

/shrug

As Purple Lady says it's about the unwanted contact, not about deleting an unwanted email.

I also don't give out my email address willy nilly, and mark all my memberships with the top privacy settings - but I still somehow or other can get junk emails relative to those accounts.

[latepaul]

Erm this is not really new. Most forms of online community whether it's Google+, Facebook or this forum allow you to message other users. They usually also allow you to receive the messages via email. They also allow you to choose who can message you.

The only real difference is that because Google owns both G+ and gmail it's slightly more joined up. But the same controls are there in that you can in the end choose who can contact you and whether they can see your email address.

[latepaul]

Originally Posted by Ravensknight

Glad there is a stopgap solution anyway.

The 'stopgap solution' is to use the provided settings for the feature. How is that 'stopgap'? Do you believe Google is going to take those settings away?

Originally Posted by latepaul

The 'stopgap solution' is to use the provided settings for the feature. How is that 'stopgap'? Do you believe Google is going to take those settings away?

Given that Google has been making incremental pushes to get people to use Google+ (as well as other Google services), it is a distinct possibility.

Then again, they can only go so far since they can't break GMail's interoperability with other service providers.

[latepaul]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

Given that Google has been making incremental pushes to get people to use Google+ (as well as other Google services), it is a distinct possibility.

How will removing the settings that allow you to control who emails you through your G+ id lead to more people using it? If anything that will lead to people leaving.

[DiapDealer]

There's nothing stopping anyone from checking Google+'s default privacy settings and altering them. I've since disabled/deleted my Google+ account (for other reasons), but does nobody seriously think to check these settings when they first create an account? Heck, changing that setting so that no one (or Circles/Extended Circles if you're not as hardcore as me) could contact me via my email address was something I did immediately after signing up and completing my profile. It was a no-brainer. Why all the uproar now?

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by latepaul

How will removing the settings that allow you to control who emails you through your G+ id lead to more people using it? If anything that will lead to people leaving.

I agree that it would lead to more people leaving if they take that setting away. The way they try to get more people to sign up is to require it to do something people want to do like leaving a review for an app. That's why I did but it took an app that was really really bad for me to sign up. I don't use it for anything else.

[JoHunt]

Man Jailed for Gmail Invite to Ex-Girlfriend

In what one expert on Internet privacy calls "a worst-case scenario," a Massachusetts man was jailed for sending his ex-girlfriend (who had a restraining order against him) an email invitation to join Google+.

But Thomas Gagnon contends he didn't send it; Google did, without his knowledge or consent.

When his ex-girlfriend received the invitation, according to the Salem News, she went to the police, complaining Gagnon had violated the restraining order by sending her the email. Police agreed and arrested him, the News reported. He was jailed then released on $500 bail.

...

Google+ allows users to aggregate their email contacts into various groups -- school classmates, say, or professional associates or old flames. Moving a contact from one category to another, Shear explained, can trigger Google to send, automatically, an email to the contact inviting them to join Google+.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/googl...ry?id=21481276

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

There's nothing stopping anyone from checking Google+'s default privacy settings and altering them. I've since disabled/deleted my Google+ account (for other reasons), but does nobody seriously think to check these settings when they first create an account? Heck, changing that setting so that no one (or Circles/Extended Circles if you're not as hardcore as me) could contact me via my email address was something I did immediately after signing up and completing my profile. It was a no-brainer. Why all the uproar now?

When I signed up I checked all the privacy settings and don't remember seeing this one so I thought it was new. I turned off everything when I signed up. I think I remember something like allowing private messages like they have here at MR, not allowing someone to send me an email without my giving them my email address.