I have multiple Google accounts, from well before they required telephone authentication, and use multiple Google services (gmail, youtube, search primarily) bu

I have multiple Google accounts, from well before they required telephone authentication, and use multiple Google services (gmail, youtube, search primarily) but I do not have any Google+ accounts. I know this for certain because if I actively try to access Google+ from any of the Google services, it asks me to first create one. I have also never tried to change any Google service or access it differently so as to avoid Google+ account creation. So, clearly, Google+ can be avoided, if you never had it. That said, I do browse with scripting disabled (Google is not trusted by default and neither gmail, youtube or search require it) and I only log into Google services from trusted, i.e. personally owned, devices. I can read posts on plus.google.com with this configuration. I have also never given my real name to an online service account, except at the time of individual payments - financial information always claims among the highest protections of laws. In my opinion, I think Google has been very fair with people who are only interested in access to their individual services, especially those that well predate Google+, without being bloated or forced away by the rest of their ever widening ecosystem. Compared to Facebook and even Microsoft, Google is angelic in terms of access, privacy and service encapsulation considerations. I cannot compare to Apple since I only use them for music purchases.