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Google Will Delete Private Google+ Profiles on July 31st

Users are required to leave full name and gender publicly available too

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By · July 10, 2011 · 184 Comments
Google Will Delete Private Google+ Profiles on July 31st

If you currently have a private profile on Facebook and was hoping to have the same on Google+, you can… until July 31, 2011 that is. Google lays out the details on the social services help section:

“The purpose of Google Profiles is to enable you to manage your online identity. Today, nearly all Google Profiles are public. We believe that using Google Profiles to help people find and connect with you online is how the product is best used. Private profiles don’t allow this, so we have decided to require all profiles to be public.”

Do you think this will have a negative effect on Google+ when it launches to the public? Tell us your thoughts.

Keep in mind that your full name and gender are the only required information that will be displayed on your profile; you’ll be able to edit or remove any other information that you don’t want to share.

Essentially, if you leave your Google+ profile private, Google will simply delete it after July 31, 2011.

Before you get in a tizzy over your name and gender being made public, keep in mind that, with Facebook, even with the most private settings users can still see your name, gender and profile picture… and it’s been that way since 2010. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, was asked why Facebook didn’t just give users full control of what information is shared, his response was:

“The site has actually never worked in a way that you sign up and the only people who can see you or your information were your friends. The reason for that is … if only the people who were already your friends on the site could see your information then it would be really difficult to connect with your actual friends and actually be able to have meaningful interactions with them.”

Some Twitter users aren’t happy with this news, as I’m sure you’d imagine:

@physch
physch graetelCongrats #Google – you did your first big mistake on #Google+ allready. Threaten to delete private profiles is a great way to earn distrust. 2 minutes ago via TweetDeck · powered by @socialditto

@halbpro
Kris LipscombeGoogle+ forcing you to have public profile? http://j.mp/mUh6hH Wrong decision. 2 minutes ago via TweetDeck · powered by @socialditto

@seanlawson
seanlawsonRT @mikkohypponen: Your private Google profile will become public on July 31st: http://selnd.com/o8GEZA – Sounds like Google is borrowin … 1 minute ago via Seesmic · powered by @socialditto

@TWCableJobs_BB
bret beniteswill this really fly, only public profiles on Google+ social site? http://lnkd.in/tyFHnq 43 seconds ago via LinkedIn · powered by @socialditto

You shouldn’t worry about all your information though, as you can still keep most of it safely tucked away, limiting access to certain elements within Google+ (circles, extended circles, etc.)

Do you think Google should delete profiles, or let people keep them private if they want? Tell us what you think.

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There are 184 Comments. Add Yours.

  1. TBH, I am neither surprised or concerned by this. Social is the way the web is moving and this requires people to have open profiles so that you and your content (shared or otherwise) can be found, otherwise it doesn’t work. If you want a private profile, hop on to Facebook and create on there.

    Thumbs up to Google from me!

  2. Do whatever you want, if you gather people do not know

  3. I think Google should let people have their own freedom to share or not to share their G + profile. Pretty bad move for their new social media site.

    • It looks as though Google learned a valuable lesson after their Buzz debacle, when they forced users to become public. With Google+ this info was premeditated and has been listed within their help section for sometime now.

  4. You are always going to get people crying and moaning about privacy in one form or another. It’s not like there is huge amounts of info that can be stored in a G profile. Tweak it a little if there are links to your fetish sites, or hop over to Facebook and create something private over there.

  5. I wonder if this effort will reduce spam in some way. If so, good!

  6. Forbees
    Reply

    a completely private profile defeats the purpose of even having a profile!

    you meet someone somewhere, you say “hey, find me on the internet” they search you, and find you…

    how does that work when your name doesn’t even pop up?

    now, you could go with the traditional exchange of phone numbers, but in today’s social experience, that just simply isn’t enough….. you can learn alot more about someone in 5 minutes of looking at a profile than you can in an hour conversation…. odds are, if your disgusted with someone after browsing their profile, your not going to call them to go get a beer

    Thumbs up Google, your doing the right thing, even if people are idiots

  7. It is just a name and gender. After seeing the amount of email addresses blasted all over websites on the internet, from people trying to get invites, this seems like a moot point. Spammers have all they need now already.

  8. Great post Jeremy… I never tried Google + yet… But I’m wondering if how it could help me… Can you share some tips about it? Thanks

  9. Google are right to do this, with Google+ they are bridging the gap that divides Facebook & Twitter.

    On Twitter (@theinternetchap) I’ll follow whoever I want to and however want’s to follow me – that’s fine too. Facebook however is reserved for real bonafide friends or acquaintances.

    Google want to bridge this gap by urging users to achieve both levels social media contacts and crossing the divide – and for that to REALLY work, they need to corral us in the opposite direction to the way Facebook regards profile privacy.

    This will make Google+ different to Facebook and will allow relationships to blossom within a single platform. Google have done this for a reason, it’s clever and no matter how much it will be fought against, they will stick to their guns and the opposers will eventually give up and join back in..

    At the end of the day, what is a social media site if you can elect to be unsocial..

    • I like your last line there… “At the end of the day, what is a social media site if you can elect to be unsocial”.

      • See this is where you both are wrong. While I find that last line amusing, you both are assuming you can’t be social without giving out personal information. I see people everyday being social that don’t tell me who they are. The way I see it is you have Google on one hand telling us here’s your information, we’ll even let you remove it or choose who gets to see it, and then the next thing they do is create a social networking layer where they are telling us we must give out certain information, or else we can’t use their social networking layer? This is going to be a big flop for Google yet again.

        • Didn’t say I agreed with the line 100%… I just liked it.

          I personally do think people should have the choice to keep their profile private and only display the information to whom they so choose.

        • I hear what you are saying, however, There are a few good reasons as to why not being able to hide your profile is good, take a look at the Facebook commenting system, this is public and the quality of a vast percentage of comments posted here are strong, relevant and honest yet still opinionated. The added extra FB Comments has is accountability.

          Now have a look at the embarrassment that is YouTube commenting, where you can hide behind a vail of secrecy, the comments are spammy, unrelated, abusive and offensive. I know these are extremes – but this exists non the less.

          I agree, YOU can be social without giving out personal information, however, this will not invite others to be social with you, from this blog post alone, users can find me on twitter, see where I work and see where I stand in the big scheme of things – you may view this as good or bad, it can be taken either way… What can’t be denied however is that it is far more social than if I hid behind a username such as ‘Purple Warlord’ and my avatar was photoshopped squirrel holding a water pistol gif animation.

          If you want to stay private, then don’t put additional information in your Google+ profile, you still have the capability to do this, Google have not taken this away from us.

          If you want to stay social with just your friends and family – then Facebook is for you, If you think you can play all you thoughts, theory’s, opinions and actions out on the web for all time in just 140 characters or less, then Twitter will rock your world.

          If however you want the best of both worlds, friends, family and the internet community as a whole as well as being able to say your piece and not hve 2 shrtn wrds al d tym then Google+ is the grown up social media choice and is the direction social media must move in to evolve into a more relevant internet for all of us.

          It is worth me stating now that I have not been lucky enough to get a Google+ invite, so what I’m saying here is pure speculation. I am however looking at the bigger picture the Google has in mind… and I can understand their thinking…

          • Hoddies

            ‘Purple Warlord’
            I love it!!!
            And I agree with your comments.

  10. Google should let their users to choose…

  11. Lloyd Sexton
    Reply

    Just a very bad decision. Even from a marketing perspective. Why disenfranchise people who don’t want public profiles?

    Giving people the power to choose how their personal information is displayed is simply good business. this service is not vital, so people will simply not use it. Very very silly.

  12. Google needs to be different from other social media for a chance to succeed in that arean. I have privacy concerns, but my profile is public already, so obviously my privacy concerns aren’t that important in retrospect.

  13. Kria
    Reply

    Really? You’re not ok with your name being out there? It’s called a phone book, and no one thinks those are creepy, even though they tell people where you live and how to contact you.

    • lloyd sexton
      Reply

      Its not the concern over name and gender being out there that gets me. Its the dictating what information you must make public. Its a slippery slope.

    • Emily
      Reply

      with a hpionebook you can choose to be ex directory though

  14. Not sure how they think this is a good idea. I don’t even understand fully why they would do this in the first place.

    Not everybody wants their info available to all and sundry.

  15. Worst. Deletion. Ever.

  17. paul
    Reply

    they have a point…. maybe deleting is to far… make inactive until the user says yes ok make me public.

    but I agree with what they are saying, if you want a private profile… use facebook… google+ is different, aslong as they have privacy controls so you can only allow certain circles to actual personal data like DOB, phone number etc I don’t see what the problem is

  18. Emily
    Reply

    this will eliminate a large number of people who will not be able to use google plus without resorting to a fake name and not being able to link their profile to any other social profile they may have online. teachers, nhs staff, members of the MOD, police even sex workers all have to have strong privacy settings due to the nature of their job they may not want people they dont know finding them online, I dont like that I havent found a way to decide who adds me to their circles yet either as I can see a lot of spam coming from spammers adding people to thier circles and using the “email all members of circle” feature.

  19. Anna
    Reply

    You all just gave your names and most of you your gender in order to comment on this site.
    Anyone who thinks facebook is remotely private, especially more private than google+, is deeply mistaken (however high you set the privacy settings).
    When you meet someone through work or socially, do you refuse to give them your name?

  21. If you use Google or Facebook market yourself in some way or other this is fine. If not it is bad, but then you can choose to go someother place together with your friends.

  23. Its googles loss if they delete a profile then that person is not going to go back to them & just stick with facebook.

  24. Google+ will be used for public profiles and facebook for private only :) )

  25. Let Google do anything they want. Let them display my name and gender. I have nothing to hide neither am I hiding from anything.

    But, isn’t this opening up a possibility of misuse? Personification for instance.

  26. But...
    Reply

    My facebook profile is set to a level of privacy that means I can’t be found in search results. So the general public CANNOT see my name, gender, etc on Facebook.

  27. I think this could back fire JMO

  28. I don’t know whether this is a big deal or not…

    Although facebook knows everything about me, and I’ve just given webpronews my email address and name, it does seem a bit like a gamble that might not pay off for google. Time will tell, I guess.

  29. ohh google please don’t join the bandwagon like facebook did..

  30. Banatu
    Reply

    Yep, let them continue to get away with forcing you to give them your real data and do whatever they want with it.

    What could possibly go wrong?

    V

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