Chris Brook

Nobody likes to think that
their actions, interests and expressions on a fun, social network like Google+
might be somehow diverted into the database of some giant advertising firm and
used to push them products. But, when you get right down to it, that’s how
Google makes money. Rather than stick your head in the sand, get smart and
review Google’s five point list of Privacy Principles.

Much like geolocation services Foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook, Google+ is counting on your desire to share what you’re doing wherever you are. Accordingly, Google+ allows you to geotag content, such as photos, that you upload. This is a great feature. But, as Threatpost has reported, geolocation data is of great interest to malicious hackers.

Google+’s new Huddle function is a group messaging platform that allows Google+ friends who have the G+ application to communicate en masse – Twitter-like. Beware, though: there’s a fine line between huddling and spamming. For one thing, starting a Huddle will send a text message to all your designated Huddle friends. If they haven’t yet downloaded the application, they’ll have to agree to Google’s Terms of Service before partaking in the conversation.

Your Circles are never revealed to other Google+ users, but your friends are – by default. Depending on who you buddy up with or follow, that could be a bad thing. Fortunately, there’s a way to limit who can view your Google+ friends and followers. In the Privacy tab, under Sharing, click Edit network visibility. Simply uncheck the two boxes to hide (or selectively hide) who you’ve added to circles and conversely, those who’ve added you to their circles and keep your friends to yourself.

If you’re going to use Google+, you’ve got to master the fine art of Circle Management. Circles are the main privacy control center of Google+. They allow you to create groups of friends and associates using a powerful (and cool) user interface that makes it easy group friends, family and coworkers then limit who can see what.

Google’s Privacy Center is a good thing to know about if you’re worried about over sharing with Google+. It centralizes privacy features for most, if not all of the company’s products and services. Take special note of Google’s Family Safety Center and the General Privacy Policy, which tells you what kind of information Google plans to mine from G+.

The profile editing section is the brains of the Google+’s privacy, providing a versatile interface that allows you to customize how you share each and every nugget of your information. Those who want to really be open can share personal details and their demographics with billions of Internet users. For the more reserved, there’s an option to share only certain information with certain groups of contacts. For the truly detached, there’s an option to make some information you share only visible to you.