Customize Google+ privacy Video

Customize Google+ privacy Video Transcript

Hey everyone, I'm Sharon Vaknin for cnet.com and today I'll show you how to customize privacy settings for post photos in your profile on Google Plus. The main feature that sets Google Plus apart from Facebook is Circles which let's you selectively post to different people. You need to know a few things about how this works. First, any post you make public are indexed by Google. So, anyone who searches for your name or something related to those posts might find them in Google Search. But, most of the time, you'll probably post to a limited circles. The problem is that if you're not careful, anyone in your circles can reshare your post to their audience but there is a way to prevent this. Once you published your post, click the arrow and select Disable Reshare. You also have the option here to disable comments if you want. Now that you understand how posts work, let's tweak privacy settings for photos. Head at the photos tab in your profile and hit View All Albums. If there is a globe next to the album, it's public. A lock means it's private and a couple of heads means it's limited. To change your sharing settings for any album, click it and then hit the link next to visible tool and enter a circles or e-mail addresses of people who can view it. Google Plus also let's people tag you in photos which are added to the photos of View Album. But, if you don't want just anyone tagging you in photos, go to Google Plus settings then scroll it on to the bottom and select which circles can tag you here. In this area is another important privacy feature. The Google Plus app for Android and iPhone has huddled which lets you chat with people in your network. By default, anyone can start a conversation with you which is really creepy. To disable this from happening, change the setting to just your circles. Unfortunately, there isn't a way to block it all together but I have faith that the option will come in time. Now, head to your profile and hit Edit Profile. We're gonna make some changes here. You can basically select any element in your profile and decide who gets to see it. But, I'll point out a few important options. Scroll to the bottom of your About section and check out an option called Search Visibility. If you don't want your profile to show open search results, click this setting and uncheck help others by me in search results. Now, look at the left side bar. When people visit your profile, they can see who is in your circles and who has you in there's. You can hide either or both of these modules by clicking Change Who is Visible Here and unchecking the boxes. Once you've made all the changes in your profile, hit Done Editing. Then, see what your profile looks like to the public by clicking View Profile As and selecting anyone on the web. If you're satisfied, hit done and enjoy Google Plus without worrying about your privacy. As always, if you have questions, ask me on my Facebook page and visit howto.cnet.com for more videos like this. For CNET, I'm Sharon Vaknin and I'll see you on the interwebs.