In today’s Quick Hits, we talk about a privacy concern with the Google+ Project, why Facebook photos matter, how to avoid “fake friends,” and what people think of Social Intelligence.

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Google Plus Faces First Privacy Flap

It was bound to happen sooner or later. After rolling out to praise from privacy advocates, the Google+ Project, Google’s new social networking feature, has hit a bump in the road. Tim Bradshaw at the Financial Times discovered that Google’s reshare feature essentially negates the Circles feature, which promises to help users share content with a select group of friends. Quoting the article, “Say a close friend of mine posts a picture of her kids to her ‘friends’ Circle. With the ‘share’ option on every Google+ post, I can reshare this with absolutely anyone, from another Circle to which my friend does not belong, right through to making it completely public. The same loophole applies not just to photos but to any kind of post, as far as I can tell.”

If users were aware that what they shared in a semi-public group could be immediately blasted to the general public, they might not be as comfortable sharing it. But, Google doesn’t make this reality clear. Hopefully, Google will insert a solution to this problem as Google+ comes out of beta.

Dan Tynan on Facebook’s “Fake Friends Epidemic”

Facebook has a big problem with spam accounts and bogus friend requests. In this article for ITWorld, Dan Tynan discusses the issue and offers some sage advice for reducing your chances of getting targeted by a fake user.

Forbes on Social Intelligence

Kashmir Hill talks about the recently approved social media background check company Social Intelligence in this article for Forbes. The article also highlights numerous comments from readers. The comments range from negative to positive, with some people calling Social Intelligence a crazy company and others saying it’s no big deal and may in fact help employers select better employees.

Why Your Facebook Photos Matter

This CNN article talks about Facebook photos and why they are such an important part of the Facebook experience. Quoting the article, “No surprise, social media sites are becoming more and more important for networking and socialization. New friends and potential employers alike could be encountering your profile photos and information before actually meeting you in person. Profile photos are all the more important now.” And because profile photos are so important to establishing an individual’s online reputation, it is important that Facebook users use caution in what they share online. As CNN advises, “the most important rule of all might be to remember that the Internet never forgets, so put some thought into what you share.”