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Google Plus: Tagging automatically shares private photos

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Re: Google Plus: Tagging automatically shares private photos

#21

Post by Turing_Machine »

lukesandberg wrote: post #6
DVassallo wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is the automatic "merge" of Picasa Web with Google+. If I mark an album as private in Picasa Web, I wouldn't expect anything to be shared. Especially if I would have been doing this for years. This violates the principle of least astonishment, at the very least.

I think it does make some intuitive sense (even if there is confusing messaging on this). If i tag someone in a picture, then clearly they should be able to see that picture (i mean they were there when it was taken so there should be no problem with that). Extending this to the album level makes some sense because presumably everything in an album is related to a particular event (so that person who was tagged would…

I agree that people should be able to see photos tagged with their name, though it's not a certainty that they were there. People often tag (e.g.) pictures of their kids with the names of the grandparents, so the grandparents will be sure to see them. On the dark side, there are also users who tag people maliciously (tagging a picture of Hitler with their boss's name, say).

I don't agree with letting them see the whole album by default. Albums aren't necessarily associated with an event. If you have an album called "Family", you might want to let your buddy see the pictures of the family barbecue he attended, without necessarily sharing the picture of your wife breastfeeding.

Re: Google Plus: Tagging automatically shares private photos

#22

Post by DVassallo »

georgemcbay wrote: post #20
DVassallo wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. One not-insignificant use-case of Picasa Web Albums was to share photos with selected people only. Face-tagging was just another piece of metadata that could be attached to private or public photos, just like the location geo-tags, captions, timestamps, etc. It never had anything to do with sharing.

I'm not disagreeing with the fact that Google violated the principle of least astonishment here in a way that people are right to be upset about due to privacy concerns... that's what I was agreeing with on my "first hand". I just don't have any strong emotional reaction to the situation because of my binary view of sharing on the Internet. Any site feature that allows you to share something "to selected people only"…

I don't share that "binary view of sharing on the internet".

I store photos "on the internet". I also store emails in Gmail. I face-tag photos with whoever is in them, for the same reasons I tag emails with whoever they relate to.

This is as if Gmail were to automatically share my Gmail conversations whenever I mention someone in an email.

Re: Google Plus: Tagging automatically shares private photos

#23

Post by ktsmith »

georgemcbay wrote: post #20
DVassallo wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. One not-insignificant use-case of Picasa Web Albums was to share photos with selected people only. Face-tagging was just another piece of metadata that could be attached to private or public photos, just like the location geo-tags, captions, timestamps, etc. It never had anything to do with sharing.

I'm not disagreeing with the fact that Google violated the principle of least astonishment here in a way that people are right to be upset about due to privacy concerns... that's what I was agreeing with on my "first hand". I just don't have any strong emotional reaction to the situation because of my binary view of sharing on the Internet. Any site feature that allows you to share something "to selected people only"…

I agree that the public/private/partially-shared features aren't terribly effective and as such am careful about what I post. I do however find them useful. I don't allows re-sharing of my photos and I've told everyone I share photos with that I don't want them re-shared, specifically on facebook. Anyone that goes to the effort to download and share my photos clearly doesn't respect my intent or concerns and is removed from the list of people I share with.

Re: Google Plus: Tagging automatically shares private photos

#25

Post by [deleted] »

mlinsey wrote: post #11
jamesaguilar wrote: post #2

This is the behavior I expect. I don't think I'm alone in this.

I'm with you. This is how it works on Facebook and I suspect this is how the majority of people expect it to work. Not only that, this is not only the behavior I expect but the behavior I want. I suppose it might be OK with me if someone tagged me in a photo that was private just to the person who took it. But it would be a huge, huge problem if someone could tag me in a photo and share it to some circles that didn't…

[deleted]

Re: Google Plus: Tagging automatically shares private photos

#26

Post by jabo »

m3koval wrote: post #19
jabo wrote: post #15

There's one more privacy feature/annoyance with photos on Google Plus. Apparently when I share an album with someone, that person in turn can share that album with other people and can also see who else I've shared it with. Now what's the point of a private album if everyone else can share my album. I like how Facebook solves this problem. You, as the album owner get to choose who sees the album. People who you've se…

Only allowing the owner to share an album is a false sense of security. If someone can see your album, they could just as easily download the photos and make them public. Instead of disallowing it outright, I'd rather they make it clear that you're sharing content with a wider audience. One solution would be to require that the owner approves the share, similar to how tagging is handled.

That's good idea. But it still wouldn't solve the issue of people downloading the photos and making them public.

Re: Google Plus: Tagging automatically shares private photos

#27

Post by andrewcooke »

yaix wrote: post #5

I read it when I opened my G+ account, and it sounded to me pretty much like Buzz all over again. Hope that gets fixed soon. Only because some guy you barely know made his way into one of your holiday photos, it doesn't mean you want to share your complete vacations with him. Probably not even that one picture, why should you be forced to?

you're not being "forced" to. simply don't tag that person.

Re: Google Plus: Tagging automatically shares private photos

#29

Post by jahmed »

ktsmith wrote: post #16
burke wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My expectation would be that the specific photos I tag Person A in are automatically visible to Person A. I think this is reasonable, and other concerns come up if a person is unable to see which photos they are tagged in. Making the entire album visible to Person A, I think, is not as reasonable.

Why should Person A be able to see the photos they are tagged in if the photos have never been shared? If I have lots of albums on Picasa and I never share any of them but I tag everyone in them, that's pretty clearly for my benefit and not the benefit of the individuals in the photos. There's no harm to Person A by being tagged in my private album, nor is there really any benefit to Person A by having the photo auto…

Because its me. If you have a picture of me and want to link it to my profile information then I think it would be reasonable for me to know you have that picture. There is obvious benefit for me to have that picture shared with me and aware that it exists instead of it being hidden away in your private collection.

Tagging is sharing. I see tagging as creating a link between the photo and my google+ profile. Maybe there should be a second option of labeling my name but not linking to my profile and thus keeping the label private, which is odd but seems more like what you want.

Re: Google Plus: Tagging automatically shares private photos

#30

Post by patio11 »

andrewcooke wrote: post #27
yaix wrote: post #5

I read it when I opened my G+ account, and it sounded to me pretty much like Buzz all over again. Hope that gets fixed soon. Only because some guy you barely know made his way into one of your holiday photos, it doesn't mean you want to share your complete vacations with him. Probably not even that one picture, why should you be forced to?

you're not being "forced" to. simply don't tag that person.

I think it is more of a managing expectations issue. Consider another situation: you pay me $25 via check. I can now debit your bank account for $100,000. Surprised? "Don't write checks." doesn't quite cover it, does it?

P.S. Don't write checks.

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