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Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Google+ Privacy, Notifications, What You Should Check

I received my Google+ invite this morning and have been playing around with Google’s “answer” to Facebook since then. The thing that I like about it most is the circles feature which allows you to create groups of friends or contacts. One of the problems that Facebook currently has is that you do not have a group feature there, which means that your status updates reach all your friends automatically. Not good if you use Facebook both for business and pleasure.

On Google+, all you need to do is to create a circle for business and one for friends to separate the news stream for those groups.

I have not really seen many privacy related posts yet. This was actually one of the first things I did after signing in for the first time and creating a few sample circles.

If you are in a hurry, skip the following part and go right to Google+ Privacy in a minute or less at the end of the guide.

Google+ Privacy

Click on your name in the upper right corner of the screen and select Account Settings from the context menu. Switch to Google+ to access the notification preferences.

Skipping on Down... (But the skipped portion is definitely worth the read. go here to real the whole article, http://www.ghacks.net/2011/07/03/google-privacy-notifications-what-you-should-check/

Google+ Privacy in a minute or less

Here is what you need to do to configure your Google+ privacy settings in less than a minute.

Click on your name and select privacy from the context menu. On the Profile and privacy page click on Edit visibility on profile and change visibility settings for the items on the screen. Once you are done click on your name again and Privacy.

Switch to Google+ on the left sidebar and modify the tagging and notification preferences on that screen.

Et voila, you have successfully configured your Google+ privacy settings.

Posting Status Updates

When you post a status update you are asked to add circles or people that you want to share that update with. The settings here define who is able to see your status update. It is therefor important to make the right selection on that screen.

google+ status visibility

Have anything to add? Let me know in the comments. You can also post if you want me to try the “invite trick” to get you invited into Google+ (please note that it is not working all the time though).

About the Author: Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.

Author: Martin Brinkmann, Sunday July 3, 2011 - Print This Post
Tags:facebook, Google, google privacy, privacy

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Read More...
http://www.ghacks.net/2011/07/03/google-privacy-notifications-what-you-should-check/

I'm glad I read this Article! I just almost Clicked on Join... But, then I thought again! After reading up on Google+... I may not ever want to Share That Much Information with the WWW!:O

Don

Google+ Privacy Policy

June 28, 2011

The Google Privacy Policy describes how we treat personal information when you use Google's products and services, including information provided when you use Google+. In addition, the following describes our additional privacy practices specific to Google+.

If you use the mobile version of Google+, the Mobile Privacy Policy applies in addition to this Google+ Privacy Policy.

Information we collect and how we use it

We will record information about your activity - such as posts you comment on and the other users with whom you interact - in order to provide you and other users with a better experience on Google services.

We may also collect information about you from other users, such as when someone puts you in one of their circles or tags you in a photo. Some users may choose to display information about you publicly, such as by displaying your public profile name and photo on their Google Profile in a list of people they’ve added to their circles.

Read it all!...
https://www.google.com/intl/en-US/+/policy/