4 ms·

Privacy nightmare? Really? First of all, Terms of Services are usually always quite broad. Beside, this is just the regular Google ToS. I wouldn't be surprised

by judofyr 15y ago

Privacy nightmare? Really? First of all, Terms of Services are usually always quite broad. Beside, this is just the regular Google ToS. I wouldn't be surprised if they'll get a separate one later. The point about available in search results is fine enough, but the only information that's forced available is your name, your profile picture and your gender. If you're commenting on other people posts (either on Facebook or G+) your name and profile picture will be seen by other people. Finally: "[G+] provide limited tools to impact the display of your page." Ehm, have they actually tried the service? Every time you attempt to share anything you're asked for which circles to include. By default it's empty (not public like on Facebook) and you'll have to make a choice. "Posted information is shared with the last defined set of people who you shared some information with." Yes, but your privacy settings is still shown right there. Facebook is worse: they hide it away under a security lock icon which is always locked (even if the post will be public) giving a false sense of security. "Once posted, this setting cannot be changed anymore." Uhm, I would be very concerned if people could change the privacy settings on a post after it's been created. And let's not forget that everyone working on G+ has been very concerned about privacy issues. E.g. previously a public post was created when you changed your profile picture. Some people was harassed on these posts so now they've changed it to default to "Your circles" (although you can always delete if you want). EDIT: Your gender is publicly visible too. Thanks callahad.

callahad 15y ago
> the only information that's forced available is your name and your profile picture. ...And your gender. (And to be pedantic, your short bio is also forced public, though you can opt to leave it blank. Similarly, any photos that you're tagged in are forced public and the only recourse is to completely hide the "Photos" tab on your profile or reject all tags of yourself on photos.)
- bdhe 15y ago
  ...And your gender. I presume you are referring to this: https://plus.google.com/111588569124648292310/posts/SeBqgN9Zoiu https://plus.google.com/111588569124648292310/posts/SeBqgN9Z... That's Randall Munroe's note on gender being public in Google+, which spurned a lot of discussion online, for those who haven't come across it yet.
blahedo 15y ago
> I would be very concerned if people could change the privacy settings on a post after it's been created. Why? Certainly this should be no problem at all if the change is a monotonic increase in publicness, i.e. you're not blocking anyone who could see it before. But even if you are trying to decrease publicness, why not? Of course, you can't make someone "un-see" the post, and any feeds or readers that have already picked it up can't be forced to delete it. But, with that caveat, I don't see any problem with making a post more private than it had been, preventing any additional unwanted eyeballs from seeing it.
- tonfa 15y ago
  I think you can add people (by mentioning them, which means everyone will be aware of it). To remove people from the post, the only option I've found is deleting the post.
tomp 15y ago
Still, there are some privacy related failures that should never have happened... Your profile photo is always visible in full resolution, even to the general public, and you cannot change that. That in itself is much worse than facebook. Of course, you can hide the Photos tab, which means that people won't be able to navigate to the Profile photos album, but it's still accessible. I have to try out yet if older profile photos are visible as well. So, how to make your photos visible to your circles and hidden (but not invisible or inaccessible) to the public? Impossible. Also, I've found no way to only show people who've added you to your circles. Either you show it to the public, or it's hidden. There is a feature that allows you to see how your profile appears to your friends, but I'm not that concerned about my friends... I can always delete someone. How about how does it appear to people in your friends' circles, and other people on G+, and the public? I can only see the last one, but I have to use another browser for that. All in all, from what I see, I'm one of the more invisible people on G+. They really should make most things default to hidden, or just your circles, otherwise they're no better than FB.

by judofyr 15y ago

callahad 15y ago

> the only information that's forced available is your name and your profile picture. ...And your gender. (And to be pedantic, your short bio is also forced public, though you can opt to leave it blank. Similarly, any photos that you're tagged in are forced public and the only recourse is to completely hide the "Photos" tab on your profile or reject all tags of yourself on photos.)

bdhe 15y ago
...And your gender. I presume you are referring to this: https://plus.google.com/111588569124648292310/posts/SeBqgN9Zoiu https://plus.google.com/111588569124648292310/posts/SeBqgN9Z... That's Randall Munroe's note on gender being public in Google+, which spurned a lot of discussion online, for those who haven't come across it yet.

blahedo 15y ago

> I would be very concerned if people could change the privacy settings on a post after it's been created. Why? Certainly this should be no problem at all if the change is a monotonic increase in publicness, i.e. you're not blocking anyone who could see it before. But even if you are trying to decrease publicness, why not? Of course, you can't make someone "un-see" the post, and any feeds or readers that have already picked it up can't be forced to delete it. But, with that caveat, I don't see any problem with making a post more private than it had been, preventing any additional unwanted eyeballs from seeing it.

tonfa 15y ago
I think you can add people (by mentioning them, which means everyone will be aware of it). To remove people from the post, the only option I've found is deleting the post.

tomp 15y ago

Still, there are some privacy related failures that should never have happened... Your profile photo is always visible in full resolution, even to the general public, and you cannot change that. That in itself is much worse than facebook. Of course, you can hide the Photos tab, which means that people won't be able to navigate to the Profile photos album, but it's still accessible. I have to try out yet if older profile photos are visible as well. So, how to make your photos visible to your circles and hidden (but not invisible or inaccessible) to the public? Impossible. Also, I've found no way to only show people who've added you to your circles. Either you show it to the public, or it's hidden. There is a feature that allows you to see how your profile appears to your friends, but I'm not that concerned about my friends... I can always delete someone. How about how does it appear to people in your friends' circles, and other people on G+, and the public? I can only see the last one, but I have to use another browser for that. All in all, from what I see, I'm one of the more invisible people on G+. They really should make most things default to hidden, or just your circles, otherwise they're no better than FB.