A new feature designed by Google for Gmail accounts could cause people to receive messages from individuals they haven't shared their Gmail addresses with, according to Reuters.
The feature is causing some concerns among privacy advocates since it expands the list of contacts available to Gmail users to now include the email address of their current contacts along with the names of people on the Google+ social network.
This effectively means people can get your email address and send you messages even if you don't know them, just by using Google+, according to Reuters.
Most feel Google is trying to integrate its Google+ social network that currently have over 540 million users, to other Google services. When an individual signs up for a Gmail account, they're given a Google+ account as well, according to Reuters.
Google feels the feature will make life easier to communicate with co-workers, family, and friends.
"Have you ever started typing an email to someone only to realize halfway through the draft that you haven't actually exchanged email addresses?" Google said in a blog post announcing the feature this week. "You're in luck, because now it's easier for people using Gmail and Google+ to connect over email."
Users that don't want to get emails from people they don't know have the option to change their settings so they only receive messages from people already added to their network of friends, or even no one at all.
Some advocates feel that this option isn't enough however. Marc Rotenberg, the executive director of non-profit Electronic Privacy Information Center, called the feature "troubling."
"There is a strong echo of the Google Buzz snafu," said Rotenberg, according to Reuters.
Buzz, which launched in 2010 and used a Gmail users' contact lists to create social networks that the whole world could see, caused an uproar and eventually a settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
Time will only tell how long the new feature will last.
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