Google+ Crowdsourcing User Data

Google+ has recently started asking users to complete their profiles similarly to LinkedIn. Now if you think you’re safe by ignoring their incentive, think twice!

Your circles can now supply additional (valuable) data about you to Google through this handy little feature:

In the screenshot above you can see the link inviting users to enter private notes about their contacts, for example their nickname, email, phone, address and notes:

Once you save the custom notes they become part of users’ profile, visible only to you… and Google?

Many speculate that Google+ is setting up for targeted advertising, but I think they have other motivations behind the latest data collection methods.