Google recently came out with a controversial new feature that would allow people who find your profile on Google+ to send you e-mails directly to your GMail account. Luckily, there is an easy way to opt out of allowing e-mails to be sent to your account. There are ways to opt out of many of Google's more unpopular, privacy-centered strategies, four of which can be found below courtesy of InformationWeek.
Delete Your Web History: Google will constantly track and log all of your web history like images, news, maps, videos and other online activity. There's no set way to opt out of letting Google do this, but you can stop it from tallying too much if you repeatedly delete your search history. Find your Web History page on your Google account, search "All History" from the menu on the left and click the checkbox next to "Remove items" to delete it all. You can also use the menu to brows categories and remove searches individually.
Opt Out of Google+: When you sign up for a GMail account, Google will automatically sign you up for its social network, Google+. If you're no longer using the social network or simply don't want it at all, a good way to maintain your online privacy is to delete your Google+ account. First go to your Google+ settings page. At the very bottom in the option "Disable Google+." Google will show you a list of data that will be removed if you delete your Google+ account. This includes your posts and comments, your +1s and your public Google profile. If you're not interested in maintaining any of this, it might be a good idea to disable your Google+ account.
Shard Endorsements: Google announced a new Terms of Service update back in November that allows the company to display your profile name and photo next to advertisements and reviews. The Shared Endorsements feature will let you share your recommendations - by way of a +1 on Google Play or a restaurant rating on Google Maps - with your connections. If you aren't interested in letting Google do this, go to Shared Endorsements page in your settings and scroll to the bottom. Uncheck the box that says "Based upon my activity, Google may show my name and profile photo in shared endorsements that appear in ads." Then click "Save."
YouTube Messages: Your browsing history on the video streaming site are private by defailt. However, if you want to block other users from spamming you with videos and messages sent directly to you, there's a setting you'll need to change. Go to YouTube account settings and click the Privacy tab from the menu on the left. Under the second option, "Search and contacts," click the box that says "Allow only my contacts to send me messages and share videos." Then click Save on the top right of the page.
For a more complete list of how to opt out of these functions, that includes screen caps of the menu options, you can find it HERE Via InformationWeek.
