Google has finally launched its +1 Chrome extension, that allows you to +1 any page you visit on the web and see how many +1s the page has. It still doesn’t let you share a page straight to your Google+ stream – a feature lots of users seem to be desperate for, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction.
So far, so good… but what’s that I spy on the extension’s Chrome Web Store page? Oh, it’s a message from Google warning that
“In addition to the practices described in the Google +1 Button Privacy Policy, by installing this extension, all of the pages and URLs you visit will be sent to Google in order to retrieve +1 information.”
Yes, that’s right: every page you visit in Chrome gets sent to Google, whether you +1 it or not.
To be fair to Google, the company has obviously learned from previous privacy fumbles. Not only is the above warning displayed fairly clearly on the extension page in the Web Store, Google has also produced a clear guide to what this actually means, entitled ‘How the +1 button respects your privacy‘.
Google insists that while yes, data is collected “to maintain and debug internal systems”, said data “isn’t organized by individual profiles, usernames, or URLs” and that any info collected is deleted after “about two weeks”. As with other extensions, the +1 button does not run while you’re in Incognito mode.
I don’t get too worried about privacy topics like this. I’m happy to use my real identity online and I trust Google when it says it’s not really interested in what I’m personally doing. If you don’t feel so sure, I recommend that you avoid the +1 extension, and stick to Incognito browsing.
If you’re still interested, you can get the Google +1 button Chrome extension here. You can download Chrome here for Mac and here for Windows.
