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Are There Security Concerns for Google+?
Google+ is the newest effort from Google to break into the social networking sphere. Some claim as high as 20 million unique accounts have been made since its release just a few months ago. However, like any social networking website, Google+ is not without flaws. This post will try to address some of these issues to two different sets of people, those living under governments that sponsor large-scale censorship and those who live under relative internet freedom.
People Living Under State Sponsored Internet Censorship:
Avoid getting an account on Google+ for now. Like any new website, Google+ is likely to have dozens of security problems that have not yet been discovered, publicized, or solved. This means that getting an account on Google+ could expose you to trouble. There just is not enough information yet about how safe and secure the site is.
People Living Under Relative Internet Freedom:
There are two main concerns that could cause problems Although Google is usually careful with security issues, these two issues may cause headaches.
A) The ‘circles’ feature on Google+ makes it very easy to group your friends, acquaintances, co-workers, and online buddies easily. Using this feature, you can target your status updates and messages to particular groups. However, it also allows people who you do not know to their circles. At this point in the network’s development, you don’t have the ability to deny people from adding you into circles unless you ban them. This means that Google+ could become a haven for spammers, making it hard for you to get anything useful from your experience on the site.
This issue hasn’t been a problem yet because Google+ works by invitation only. Once the testing stage is completed and membership is expanded so that anyone may join, it could become a problem. In the meantime even without spammers, it is still a concern that people can add you to circles without your approval.
B) Because membership is restricted to those invited to Google+, people with malicious intent may exploit this opportunity to harm users who are eager to get Google+ accounts. They could send out fake invitations. Links sent to you that seem like invites may actually turn out to be websites that could end up harming your computer. Only click on links that clearly contain google’s domain name and other specifications. Do not click on links coming from third parties.
This means that you actually need to look at the content of the link, not its name. Before clicking on a link let your mouse hover on it to show the location of the link. In the case of the web browser Firefox, the link location will display in the lower left corner of the screen.
We will inform you as the security issues of Google+ become apparent and solutions to these and other unknown problems are developed.
This post is part of special series of articles focusing on managing your online security and privacy. The complete series can be found in Persian at this link: http://bit.ly/n19Pzk. If you have questions about the internet, privacy, or online security, you can ask our security editor using the form on the website or by emailing: [email protected].
