Now anyone on Google+ can send you an email. Privacy nightmare or nifty feature?

The latest news from Google has invited controversy, as more and more privacy seem to be going out of the door. The latest update from Google gives a way for anyone on Google+ to send you an email via Gmail, even if you’ve never met each other before. When composing, Gmail will also auto suggest people you know on Google+, even if you don’t know what his/her email address is.

In short, it’s good in a way that you can always be in touch with anyone you like but in some ways, this removes another level of privacy for most average Joe.

Gmail email Google plus

When the update hits your Gmail (it’s currently being rolled out to everyone, you can see the new “Google+ connections” suggestions from the drop down list. Thankfully, your email address won’t be shown here unless if you reply him/her back. It’s like sending a private message, only at the form of an email.

If you have the sender in your Google+ circle, the email will be shown up at the Primary tab (if you have the smart inbox turned on). If not, the emails will go to the Social tab instead.

google connections

You can also opt-out to prevent anyone on Google+ from sending you emails by changing the Settings on your Gmail. You can limit these to your Circles or even set it to “No one” if you are afraid of spam and an invasion of privacy.

Google plus

I saw a lot of harsh comments on Twitter earlier about this change but in my opinion, you shouldn’t worry about it much. This is because your email address won’t be available for public anyway, unless if you reply back. Besides, even with Facebook and Twitter, people pretty much already have a way to send you some form of messages, so this is not much different. What do you think?

Source: Gmail’s blog post

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