Social Search Privacy: What You Need to Know
Last week, we shared how to control your privacy settings with Facebook's Timeline. Today, we have more privacy tips for social networking--but now it's Google that's delivering an interesting new feature that brings with it a few privacy concerns.
Recently, Google rolled out Social Search, which aims to provide more personally relevant search results. In addition to the standard search results, Social Search includes search results from your online connections, Google+ profiles, and other social sites. This can make it easier to find personally relevant results--if you search for restaurants, you might get results of local restaurants that your friends have mentioned on Google+, or a coworker's food blog.
Of course, as with most social innovations, there are privacy issues to consider. With a few simple steps, you can control the information you may be sharing in your contacts' Social Search results, and manage the Social Search results you see.
First of all, if you have Google+, anything you have shared publically can show up in anyone's search results, just as it will for anyone who searches the same term directly in Google+. Anything you have shared with specific people will appear in only those people's Social Search results. No one sees your private content.
Social Search also includes tailored autocomplete to suggest the end of a search query based on the results to be found in your contacts. If you have a Google profile, you will appear in autocomplete suggestions for your contacts. This is a default setting that many people probably forget about after creating a profile. If you do not want your profile to appear in search results, you can disable this option. While logged into your Google profile, click "Edit Profile," then click "Profile discovery" and uncheck "Help others discover my profile in search results."
You can turn social results on and off in two different ways. Social results will only show up if you are signed into your Google account. There is a switch next to the search bar to enable and disable social results.
You can also sign out before performing a search to avoid receiving social results.
Social Search may be an exciting way to discover more personally relevant content and help you connect with your loved ones in different ways. At the moment, it's drawing fire from the Electronic Privacy Information Center for prioritizing its own content and services over that from other companies, like Twitter.
Recently, Google rolled out Social Search, which aims to provide more personally relevant search results. In addition to the standard search results, Social Search includes search results from your online connections, Google+ profiles, and other social sites. This can make it easier to find personally relevant results--if you search for restaurants, you might get results of local restaurants that your friends have mentioned on Google+, or a coworker's food blog.
Of course, as with most social innovations, there are privacy issues to consider. With a few simple steps, you can control the information you may be sharing in your contacts' Social Search results, and manage the Social Search results you see.
First of all, if you have Google+, anything you have shared publically can show up in anyone's search results, just as it will for anyone who searches the same term directly in Google+. Anything you have shared with specific people will appear in only those people's Social Search results. No one sees your private content.
Social Search also includes tailored autocomplete to suggest the end of a search query based on the results to be found in your contacts. If you have a Google profile, you will appear in autocomplete suggestions for your contacts. This is a default setting that many people probably forget about after creating a profile. If you do not want your profile to appear in search results, you can disable this option. While logged into your Google profile, click "Edit Profile," then click "Profile discovery" and uncheck "Help others discover my profile in search results."
You can turn social results on and off in two different ways. Social results will only show up if you are signed into your Google account. There is a switch next to the search bar to enable and disable social results.
You can also sign out before performing a search to avoid receiving social results.
Social Search may be an exciting way to discover more personally relevant content and help you connect with your loved ones in different ways. At the moment, it's drawing fire from the Electronic Privacy Information Center for prioritizing its own content and services over that from other companies, like Twitter.
