It's also going to assign one name across all your accounts -- presumably this is based on the base contact email you provide when you sign up for things (note: that's a guess on my part).
That's not how it works. I think it's using unique cookies to identify users. Here's why I think this:
I have had a Youtube account since before Youtube was owned by Google. When G+ started, I created a Google profile in order to use G+. That profile had nothing in common with the Youtube account - not username, not email addy, nothing except that they were accessed using the same computer, via the same ISP. (I was pretty careful about giving them distinct usernames/passwords when I set up the Google profile.)
Even so, Google decided all by themselves that these two accounts were owned by the same person, and unilaterally linked the accounts without my knowledge or permission. I only found out that this had happened when I tried to log into my Youtube account with the regular old Youtube account name and password, and it wouldn't let me. It told me that I had to log in with my Google profile.
I declined to do so, and after trawling through the G+ user forums and discovering that this was actually a fairly common occurence and intentional by Google (rather than a glitch), I deleted my Google profile. It so happens that I did in fact own those two accounts; but since the only thing connecting them was the fact that they were (most commonly) accessed from the same machine/ISP, I shudder to think of the shenanigans that might occur for folk using shared machines. Ugh. That's a privacy disaster waiting to happen, and I want no part of an organisation that is as actively and openly hostile toward privacy as Google has become.
So now I use Startingpage to anonymise my "powered by Google" websearches, and have said goodbye to my Youtube, G+ etc accounts. I don't need them.
no subject
It's also going to assign one name across all your accounts -- presumably this is based on the base contact email you provide when you sign up for things (note: that's a guess on my part).
That's not how it works. I think it's using unique cookies to identify users. Here's why I think this:
I have had a Youtube account since before Youtube was owned by Google. When G+ started, I created a Google profile in order to use G+. That profile had nothing in common with the Youtube account - not username, not email addy, nothing except that they were accessed using the same computer, via the same ISP. (I was pretty careful about giving them distinct usernames/passwords when I set up the Google profile.)
Even so, Google decided all by themselves that these two accounts were owned by the same person, and unilaterally linked the accounts without my knowledge or permission. I only found out that this had happened when I tried to log into my Youtube account with the regular old Youtube account name and password, and it wouldn't let me. It told me that I had to log in with my Google profile.
I declined to do so, and after trawling through the G+ user forums and discovering that this was actually a fairly common occurence and intentional by Google (rather than a glitch), I deleted my Google profile. It so happens that I did in fact own those two accounts; but since the only thing connecting them was the fact that they were (most commonly) accessed from the same machine/ISP, I shudder to think of the shenanigans that might occur for folk using shared machines. Ugh. That's a privacy disaster waiting to happen, and I want no part of an organisation that is as actively and openly hostile toward privacy as Google has become.
So now I use Startingpage to anonymise my "powered by Google" websearches, and have said goodbye to my Youtube, G+ etc accounts. I don't need them.