Google+ mission creep continues with Hangouts slotted into Gmail Google's social networking mission creep continued with Gmail on Monday when the ad giant slotted its Google+ Hangouts function into its web email service. The company confirmed it had ditched its peer-to-peer video chat feature. "Hangouts utilise the power of Google’s network to deliver higher reliability and enhanced …
I doubt they will. Right now you can have a G+ account associated to any email address (in fact, if you've registered with any G service you probably have a G+ account waiting). But, and this is quite important to a lot of people, you do have the option to disable G+ from within your account settings.
Unless Google became the dominant social network and decided they could abuse such trust, I can't see them changing this.
Incidentally, you can also download all of your Google data (not just G+) from the same settings.
(need a tinfoil-hat icon)
...but every alias you set up in Gmail automatically gets another G+ account, which you then have to remember to delete. Luckily the arseholes at Google have started spamming G+ users with weekly emails - a useful reminder to delete the crap.
The dedicated feedback address for my app doesn't need a G+ account, just another unused one padding the G+ user number.
An option to tie up a Google+ profile to Blogger was also just added:
http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/30/3205202/blogger-google-plus-tab-sharing
I hope they keep it optional, otherwise I'll dump Google completely.
I deleted my Google+ account the other day.
I rent a server in California which comes with a domain name; complete control over my own e-mail and a sliding spam filter control.
My own web space with databases and scripting enables me to run my own web sites, blogs and forums; the last few months have seen some of my blogs moved, others destroyed as completley as I can, and only a few more still on blogger that have yet to be ported.
Not google related, but my twitter and facebook accounts were purges a short while back as well. My searching is also done by Yahoo; although when I draw a blank with that, I do turn to google.
Shortly, the only Google service I will use will be YouTube, because I can't afford the video bandwidth.
The only way out of this, is to take control of my own data, even if it means my, "social," interaction is limited to the comments on my videos. Besides, I've just joined the local ramblers so I get plenty of chance to talk with people in real time :-)
You seem to have experienced a sort of epiphany recently with regard to how "surveillable" you are to the tech oligarchy, and how surveillable you want to be. Even though you could have reasonably had this epiphany quite a while ago, I can only admire the effort you have made to "take control of [your] data".
Nice! (And, of course, the very best of luck and success to you!)
Just got my shiny new Android running Ice Cream Sandwich, started taking some photos and discovered that by default they were automatically getting uploaded to Google+.
FFS I used to really like Google, but this is taking the piss. So much for do no evil, what are these people on!
Actually this was before Google+ as my Droid auto-uploaded some photos to Picasa 4 or 5 years ago, and it took me nearly 3 years to find and delete them, as they were uploaded somewhere in Picasa I could not see.
I did manage to find the "Sync Picasa Web Albums" option under "Accounts & Sync settings" and turn it the fuck off. I've also turned off "Sync Books" and "Sync Gmail" since I don't use the shite built-in Android email client.
Yes, I was a little irritated.
From the G+ app feature list on the Play Store;
"Turn on Instant Upload to sync photos from your phone to a private Google+ album"
1) If you have a data cap on wifi then don't turn Instant Upload on.
2) It's a private G+ album, not exactly "the internet" where everyone can see your weiner. If you upload stuff by accident, delete it. Nobody is forcing you to share your candid photographs with the world.
I shouldn't have to delete a twitter account I didn't sign up for. But, like you, I did sign up. And now what? If I don't use it then I will not be affected by it in any way at all, and neither will you if you don't use yours. How hard is it not to use something that you signed up for, or not to use something that you've not signed up for, or not to use something that is free, or not to use something that you paid for? I don't have any difficulty not using things, but it seems a lot of people do.
"And uploading photos to G+ automatically? That sounds helpful rather than evil..."
Clearly, you *like* Google deciding, without your prior knowledge or consent, to do things with your data you may or may not consent to. You want them to decide for you that your data should be put on the Internet. So, if you happen to take a picture of your wiener using your Android phone, I understand you're OK with that picture being automatically uploaded to G+. Whatever floats your boat.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
