05-28-2014, 09:20 PM
silvarios wrote:
You can kind of opt out of Google+. Don't YouTube comments require it? Setting your age certainly does, and I needed to in order to watch videos from some of my favorite channels. Google+ is also required for group chats in Hangouts, right? I suppose you could just not use such features that require Google+.
You can choose not to "integrate" your Gmail account with Google +. You do that on your Google + settings page. It "is" your profile for all of Google services. If you comment on YouTube, you can click the checkbox if you want it to post to Google + or not, I don't believe you need Google + in order to use Hangouts. It's integrated in there but Hangouts is just as prominent on your Gmail web page. I think Hangouts can stand virtually alone. It also works just fine on my iPhone too.
There are two ways for the NSA to gather your data. Either by intercepting it or Google just handing it over. This is what they all should be judged on. They and most others already agree to not share with 3 parties. I trust none of them.