By Audrey Watters, Edutopia
One of the biggest ongoing concerns surrounding social networking continues to be questions of privacy — users’ private conversations or users’ personal data exposed, whether as a result of error, negligence, or intent. So when Google unveiled its new social network Google Plus, it wasn’t surprising to see the search engine position Google Plus as an antidote to the “sloppy,” “scary,” and “insensitive” sharing options — in other words, the lack of privacy — it pointed to on other social networks. Google actually never mentions “privacy” outright in its blog post introducing Google Plus, but that’s certainly the subtext, as it positions itself as an alternative to Facebook, the dominant social network, but a site that has had a long string of privacy snafus. And the promise of better privacy is one of many things that could make Google Plus an appealing site for educators. Circles will allow targeted sharing, for example, so updates and posts can be seen only by those in certain groups. But six weeks since the launch the Google Plus, it’s pretty clear that Google hasn’t solved the myriad of privacy concerns that can arise on the Internet.
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/google-plus-privacy-audrey-watters
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