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This is problematic given the current vulnerability to spam Google+ has. Anybody can friend you, via your own friends.To make it worse, Google will give you a r
by alecco 15y ago
This is problematic given the current vulnerability to spam Google+ has. Anybody can friend you, via your own friends.To make it worse, Google will give you a red notice for this on every service, even search. I've been friended by multiple online media sociopaths through my friends.
Say Mr. X social media adds a few of your publicly listed friends. And some add him back. Then Mr. X adds all their friends by looking at their circles (both ways). This includes unlisted people. They add all of them. Again, some of them add them back without double-checking. This is reinforced when Google+ shows contacts in common. You think, hey this is a friend of a friend. Often they have more than 2 contacts in common.
It's either spreading like fire or my friends are particularly vulnerable to this, wich I doubt as most are tech-savvy.
I hope Google takes care of this issue before the Zyngas creep up and make the service as trashy as Facebook.
Edit: reworking examples to make it a bit more clear.
- munificent 15y ago> Anybody can friend you and it will be shown across all Google pages, even search. I've been friended by multiple online media sociopaths through my friends. I don't see how that leads to spam. Friendship isn't symmetric in G+. Media sociopaths can follow me all they want. If I don't follow them back, I don't see a word they write in my stream.
- alecco 15y agoMr. X adds me. Looks like a normal guy and G+ shows we have 2 contacts in common. So I add him. Then I get his spammy stream. The only way to verify is to go check their page before adding, but that's a hassle. So most people just add them. And while they keep the spam rate low and make it look OK most people just leave them. This happens in particular with users who visit G+ less frequently. This happened to me several times in the last few weeks. EDIT: I am aware of this so I don't add them anymore, but many of my contacts, perhaps most, keel falling for it. And I cant escape the constant notices of MR Xs adding me on G+ even when I'm not in G+. I can't tell G+ not to notice me of spammers adding me and just do it for actual friends. BTW, downvotes? Wow...
- saraid216 15y ago...your problem is that spammy people aren't spammy enough to get removed from your circle for being spammy?
- yuvipanda 15y agoDo your due diligence. Don't add anyone you don't know. Or, if they 'seem' interesting, banish them to a dark circle that you visit perhaps once in a few weeks.
- alecco 15y agoIt was an example. I do not add them anymore. But I get constant notices of random spammers adding me. And these notices show up on every Google page, including normal searches. There is no way Google can tell Mr. X is a friend of a friend or a random social spammer. Even if you do the right thing, you get those notices. And even if only some of your friends fall for it, it spreads. And I don't blame them, it's a hassle to check. Edit: and of course, I am not publicly listed! But they can bypass that by adding friends who have their list of contacts public (a default!)
- humbledrone 15y ago> So I add him. There's your problem. Why on Earth are you adding people that you don't know at all? I'd like to see you back up your "So most people just add them" statement with hard evidence. I for one, do not "just add" people just because they circled me. I first check to see if they are someone I care about at all.