Click this link to opt out of Google's shared endorsements program

https://plus.google.com/settings/endorsements?hl=en

by easytiger • 13 years ago

146 53 13 years ago

plus.google.com

sanxiyn• 13 years ago

I opted out. Thanks.

jzelinskie• 13 years ago

mine defaulted...off ?

Heliosmaster• 13 years ago

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

kintamanimatt6• 13 years ago

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.

barrkel2• 13 years ago

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• 13 years ago

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.

riquito• 13 years ago

Aren't you misinterpreting the effect of +1? +1 makes publicly available the fact that you like something, so you are saying "I want to share with the world that I like this thing"

bsullivan013• 13 years ago

Nice try, I bet you drunk some GKoolAid.

You +1 a company, say HP, because you bought Laptop XYZ. Now Google has been cutting unpaid traffic to everyone with their gimmicks http://i.imgur.com/mhJhc5W.png and Google's own spam so many more are forced to advertise. HP advertises on Google, Desktop ABC and since you +1-ed them, your friends will click on it, thinking you bought that desktop (about half are unlikely to know they clicked on an ad, they'll think it's an unbiased Google result).

Now there's absolutely no reason to believe that Google or HP care if your friends got the best computer for their money, Google wants their ad money and HP is in the business of selling computers at margins as high as they can. In essence, you are helping Google scam your friends.

Why isn't Google letting your friends see the websites you ranked but only ads? To make them more likely to click on ads. Almost always advertisers advertise the product they make the most on, and the cost of advertising is tacked on to the price.

krelian2• 13 years ago

Now there's absolutely no reason to believe that Google or HP care if your friends got the best computer for their money, Google wants their ad money and HP is in the business of selling computers at margins as high as they can.

You seem to be convinced that all business is just one big scam. I wonder what you do for a living?

Why isn't Google letting your friends see the websites you ranked but only ads? To make them more likely to click on ads.

Well I certainly think they wouldn't add this feature had they thought it will drive down the click rate but immediately approaching this as if it were a conspiracy to get some extra clicks while users figure it's a scam is just that, a conspiracy. In the long run it just doesn't make sense for google to display results that are not relevant to visitors and they know that.

agravier• 13 years ago

Nice try, I bet you drunk some GKoolAid.

I find it funny that you undermine the credibility of your whole carefully constructed argumentation with a nasty little ad hominem at the beginning.

DanBC2• 13 years ago

but I'm really struggling to see why this is something bad.

Partly it's the backlash against all the privacy invasions recently.

People realised that all the minor privacy creeping leads to a situation where you can't do anything without it being very public.

They should have been making a fuss when the systems were being set up, but they dismissed the privacy-advocates as tin foil hatters and conspiracy nuts.

Some people are saying they are opting out and never plus one anything. That's fine. I'm going to do the opposite and plus one everything. I might even find a Firefox plugin to do it for me. Every page I'm on, click +one for everything. Spider pages linking to those pages ad plus one those too. Spider pages from popular news sites and plus one those as well.

kintamanimatt6• 13 years ago

People realised that all the minor privacy creeping leads to a situation where you can't do anything without it being very public.

Okay, this is an argument that could resonate with me, and an angle I hadn't thought about. However, I still struggle to see how a public expression of liking something (a +1 is just that, as are reviews) is a bad thing. It's only shared with people you permit too.

It's well known that these are not private notes to oneself and I really can't see how this could be inch-by-inched to something egregious.

DanielBMarkham3• 13 years ago

"I'm really struggling to see why this is something bad"

Let's say you are famous person X. Would you want Google giving out your endorsements to people and making money from doing it? Probably not. So why is it okay if you're just some schmuck?

Our opinions and thoughts have value. Online providers are feasting on our thoughts and actions and turning it all into some kind of version of a radio promotional spot. If your life is a piece of merchandise, then maybe it doesn't matter. Or perhaps you're not that important. But many others have done the math and it is important to them.

So I guess the real question is: how much do you value your thoughts?

kintamanimatt6• 13 years ago

What difference does it make if I'm famous and +1 something or write a review online about something because I have an opinion? What's the difference between choosing to +1 something and writing an unsponsored tweet or blog post? Why is it okay to write a review on Yelp (and have them profit from it) but not +1 something?

I appreciate other people can make money from my reviews and endorsements and really I have no problem with that because in theory I get value in return by way of my friends' recommendations. 9/10 it's the reviews that make or break my decision to buy something or go somewhere, and I give as freely as I receive even in the knowledge that some third party is profiting too.

Nobody's up in arms about Amazon or GoodReads profiting from reviews on their site. I don't see why this is any different.

BenderV• 13 years ago

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.

cientifico• 13 years ago

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• 13 years ago

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.

r0h1n• 13 years ago

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• 13 years ago

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...

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...

fthssht2• 13 years ago

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.

fthssht2• 13 years ago

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

TillE• 13 years ago

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.

anuraj• 13 years ago

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

Shenglong• 13 years ago

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.

james-skemp• 13 years ago

Agree 100% which is why I visited the page but didn't opt out after reading the page.

I assume that what I +1 is public and act accordingly.

But for those that don't, which is surprisingly a lot of young people, nice that this option exists.

agarden• 13 years ago

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.

spdy• 13 years ago

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• 13 years ago

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_Michon2• 13 years ago

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

_x5tx• 13 years ago

Mine was already off by default

chmars3• 13 years ago

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

http://i.imgur.com/qrJNQtk.png

tty• 13 years ago

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

chmars3• 13 years ago

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.

Samuel_Michon2• 13 years ago

If that checkbox was already checked when you got to that page, it’s opt-out, not opt-in.

chmars3• 13 years ago

The checkbox was not already checked, i.e., it's opt-in for me. But it seems that for most users, it's opt-out.

I agree, however, that my screenshots shows the checkbox checked. The reason is that I want to mark the line for clarity. By double-clicking the line in Chrome, the checkbox got checked.

Without the line marked, the checkbox was unchecked:

http://i.imgur.com/cas6SMB.png

jwr• 13 years ago

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).

jftuga• 13 years ago

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

mknits• 13 years ago

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

elliottkember• 13 years ago

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.

DanBC2• 13 years ago

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

zjelveh• 13 years ago

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?

evadne• 13 years ago

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.”

PaperclipTaken• 13 years ago

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.

Click this link to opt out of Google's shared endorsements program

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