

Click this link to opt out of Google's shared endorsements program - easytiger
https://plus.google.com/settings/endorsements?hl=en

======
BenderV
It's cool to have this option.

But it disturbed me. I feel like it's a way to shut off the protest (a small
small minority of interested persons)...

It feels like it's a choice now, but the reality is not really... my sister,
my parents, will never go on the options, and will never defaulted it. The
choice is disconnected with the impact, thus making it kind of invisible. "By
default" is a small, but commons dark patterns.

------
fthssht
In a world where everyone is famous to 15 people on their news feed google
plus etc. Now everyone can do what celebrities do and endorse products. But we
get to not get compensated. If someone famous had this happen to them it would
be a clear violation of their rights to publicity. The law needs to be updated
so this applies to everyone.

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DanBC
I'd be interested to see if the legal aspect of model releases and using
someone's image with their implied, not explicit, consent.

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jwr
Or you could just opt out of Google+. I deleted my Facebook and Google+
accounts about a year ago, deciding that the benefits I was getting from them
were not worth the hassle and the privacy concerns.

The benefits, incidentally, after I thought about them carefully, could be
classified as "chewing gum for your mind". Neither social network enriched my
life in any meaningful way. Both consumed a lot of time that could be much
better spent elsewhere (for example, in this Hacker News discussion... oh,
wait).

------
PaperclipTaken
This might actually be a better way to advertise on the internet. My biggest
qualm with advertising is that in almost every case, the product being shoved
into your face is not the best product for you needs, it's the product with
the better marketing plan, which has little correlation to the actual value of
the product.

With endorsements, it's more likely that I'll get advertised products that
suit my needs, because I'll get more advertised products that people who are
similar to me have endorsed.

It still doesn't remove the marketing budget factor, but it may more strongly
correlate the things that are advertised to me with the things that best fit
my needs.

------
jftuga
How can I tell if I have a G+ account? I have GMail and YT accounts, but just
not sure about G+.

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evadne
I use Google Apps and the box is unchecked by default:

“Based on your domain's current settings, your name and profile picture will
not appear in shared endorsements paired with ads. If your domain
administrator changes this in the future, your choice here will be honored.”

------
elliottkember
Actually, this link took me to a "Sign up for Google+" page. This is because I
opted out of a Google+ account, so it's to be expected, but, considering the
title, it's ironic.

------
cientifico
You can opt-out easily if you don't click any +1. And on any case, What is the
problem? If I like something, I don't care if people know that I like that.

Of course If you want to build a virtual profile of your self, and you are
afraid that the people discover how you really are, I can understand, but on
that case, the problem is yours, not google's.

~~~
cbr
A "like" or "+1" is similar to a vote. There's lots of cases where we have
private votes: Reddit, HN, politics. I don't mind these being public, and
actually had already thought they were, but I can see how other people view it
differently.

------
fthssht
Let's not forget how easy it is to accidentally click those fucking buttons
too which are everywhere

~~~
TillE
Seriously. I can at least block them on my desktop browser, but I've
accidentally hit that button a few times on the Android store.

It's just a symptom, though. The whole modern conception of "social
networking" can't die soon enough.

------
sanxiyn
I opted out. Thanks.

------
mknits
I never created G+ account. It saved and continue to save a lot of time.

------
anuraj
Your evil, sinister plans - Oh Devil (Google)!

------
loop0
Mine was already off by default

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r0h1n
I love the way Internet cos, led by Facebook and now Google are progressively
conditioning us to different interpretations of online privacy.

First it was "Like or +1" anything you like. Don't worry, it's all private.

Then it was, everytime you "like or +1" something, we'll tell all your
"friends".

Soon, the definition of friends was enlarged to mean "people who you may know
or are in some circles", effectively broadcasting your "likes and +1s" to tens
of thousands of people.

Finally our "likes and +1s" are now considered public endorsements, and fair
game for being portrayed as advertisements (minus any compensation to us of
course).

I stopped using Facebook "likes" a year back, and deleted my Facebook account
a few months ago. As for Google+, I signed up briefly when it launched but
then promptly closed it. I've never +1-ed anything, and never will.

~~~
abraham
The +1 button announcement specifically says "share recommendations with the
world" and the messaging around +1's has always been clear that they are
public and associated with your identity.

> Today we’re taking that a step further, enabling you to share
> recommendations with the world right in Google’s search results. It’s called
> +1—the digital shorthand for “this is pretty cool.” To recommend something,
> all you have to do is click +1 on a webpage or ad you find useful. These
> +1’s will then start appearing in Google’s search results.

[http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/1s-right-
recommendati...](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/1s-right-
recommendations-right-when-you.html)

> 1 is as simple on the rest of the web as it is on Google search. With a
> single click you can recommend that raincoat, news article or favorite sci-
> fi movie to friends, contacts and the rest of the world.

[http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/1-button-for-
websites...](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/1-button-for-websites-
recommend-content.html)

------
jzelinskie
mine defaulted...off ?

~~~
Heliosmaster
if you had already the +1 sharing disabled, then also this is disabled by
default

------
spdy
Im just curious for me i was opt out to begin with. But it looks like many are
not?

I still have this voice in my head from Eric Schmidt "With your permission
...", "If you opt-in".

So they start to abandon the opt-in ship and we now have to keep up with every
sharing/ad-feature they add throughout the whole Google ecosystem to keep the
little privacy we still have?

~~~
johnpowell
They sent me a email earlier today.

"The changes to the Terms will be effective as of November 11, 2013. If you do
not take any action, the Shared Endorsements setting will be turned on."

I imagine many people won't read the email.

~~~
Samuel_Michon
Is that even legal? I’m not allowed to send my customers email newsletters
without them opting in[1], how is Google allowed to sell its users’
information without opt-in? Can a company suddenly decide to change its terms,
without its customers’ permission?

[1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-
SPAM_Act_of_2003](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAN-SPAM_Act_of_2003)

------
Shenglong
It's not that bad once you read into it. It's not bad at all. Google displays
my recommendations to my friends, and since I only really _like /+1_ things I
would recommend, it seems natural, and maybe even convenient.

Unfortunately, the crux of the issue may lie in consumer protections. While
you and I may know exactly what we're endorsing, the average consumer probably
does not. The average consumer probably also does not understand that their
friends also do not. Otherwise, we wouldn't see so many "FREE $500 COSTCO
GIFTCARD - CLICK HERE" posts on Facebook.

TL;DR: While I haven't formed a cohesive opinion about this, the problem with
endorsements lies in the average case--not in the best case.

~~~
agarden
My thoughts were similar. I only +1 or Like things I am genuinely endorsing,
and it's cool with me if the company gets good publicity in consequence.
That's kind of the point. I wouldn't +1 something I did not want to give good
publicity. So I almost left it on. Then I realized that I had no control over
the content of the ad and there was no guarantee that what the ad said had
anything to do with my reasons for +1'ing. Nor am I likely to go back and
retract my +1 (can one do such a thing?) later if the company goes to the dark
side.

So I opted out.

------
zjelveh
i'm opting out. but not necessarily because of privacy reasons, but because I
think I should be compensated for helping sell someone's product.

where's my cut?

------
chmars
Why is an opt-out necessary? I followed the link and it seems to be opt-in:

[http://i.imgur.com/qrJNQtk.png](http://i.imgur.com/qrJNQtk.png)

~~~
tty
The option seems to have been enabled by default at least on some Google
accounts.

~~~
chmars
It would be interesting to know why the option is enabled by default for some
(most?) Google accounts and why it isn't for some (few?) Google accounts.

------
kintamanimatt
It's great that Google are giving a way to opt out but I'm really struggling
to see why this is something bad. Such endorsements are only shared with
people you're sharing stuff with anyway, and if I saw a friend had "endorsed"
a business that was displaying an ad I'd actually pay attention to that.

~~~
barrkel
I have a different view of '+1'. I see it more like an indicator that I like
something, to be seen by the people who make the thing I like, so they know
it's good. I don't particularly want to share that with anyone.

~~~
oakwhiz
This is interesting because I think way too many different meanings are
attributed to a single social action. If someone posts a good news story about
a current event that you disagree with, should you like or dislike the news
story? A lot of HN folks would probably like (or upvote) the story, but some
people, especially in other communities like YouTube, have a reversed view on
this, and will use the dislike button to express a negative emotion even if
they actually thought the video was good.

For this reason I'm actually surprised that significant advertising value can
be mined from data about +1s and likes.

I wonder if we need more expressive "single-button" social interactions, like
some kind of hybrid between tags and likes. At the very least, some kind of
way to express to the computer, and to friends, that you want to promote some
piece of content (or censor it) while simultaneously disagreeing/agreeing with
the idea presented in the content.

~~~
bsullivan01
_For this reason I 'm actually surprised that significant advertising value
can be mined from data about +1s and likes._

The value might be just to get the person to click on an ad, and pad up this
quarter's revenue, right before Christmas. Of course if ad clicks go up,
unpaid traffic from unbiased Google goes down even more.

