Google+ Rolls Out Ability to Lock Albums from Being Shared

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Posted in Google Plus News

Google+ continues to improve it’s privacy by allowing members to have access to more tools. Today Google rolled out the ability to lock albums so that others can not share them.  Matt Steiner, a lead Google+ engineer, made the following post on Google+ this afternoon explaining the new privacy option:

Google+ Photos is a great way to share your favorite memories with your different circles. But sometimes you want to limit how your photos are shared. That’s why today we’re rolling out the ability to lock an album, which prevents others from resharing it.

You can lock an album from two places — your Photos page, or album posts in the Stream — and when you do a few things happen:

- Viewers won’t be able to +mention new people
- Photo tags by viewers won’t expand who can see your album
- All of your posts about your album will also be locked

To lock an album from your Photos page:

1. Click Your albums
2. Click on the album
3. Click on who can currently view the album (e.g. Limited)
4. Check the Lock this album box
5. Click Save

Or from an album post in the Stream:

1. Find the post with the album you want to lock
2. Choose Lock this post from the drop-down menu located at the top right

In both cases the word “Locked” will appear, and that’s it! We’re always trying to make Google+ a safer and more comfortable place to share your photo memories. As always, please keep sending us your feedback. We’re always listening and iterating!

Thanks to +Kedar Kanitkar and +Dom Carr for making this feature happen!

These new options certainly are helpful for those of us who want complete control over who see certain images we may upload.

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  • archerjohn

    Google Help says that I can choose to lock all albums by going to My Albums on the Google+ Home Screen. But when I go there, it instantly grays out until I put people in circles, which I don’t want to do! What gives?