How to stop people Gmailing you from Google+

The internet is on fire with news of Google’s decision to allow anyone to email your Gmail account from Google+. The usual cries of foul play regarding privacy are, needless to say, getting the most coverage.
I’ll say from the outset that I think this is a pretty crappy move from Google but it is in no way a surprising move.

Google have been trying to integrate Google+ into all of their services for some time now and this is just another move that blurs the lines between where one service ends and another begins.

Before everyone gets their pitch forks out, one thing that is being overlooked in favour of headlines, is that this can be easily turned off. Infact you can do it in about 20 seconds.

If you want to turn it off, login to your Gmail account on a computer. On the top right corner there is a gear icon.

Click the icon and from the drop down hit “Settings”

Once you have clicked settings, all of your Gmail settings will appear in the current window. Under the “General” tab scroll down until you see “Email via Google+:”

From the drop down menu change this from “Anyone on Google+” to “No one”

At the bottom of the screen, hit the “Save Changes” button and that’s it. No more emails from anyone on Google+.

While this was an undesirable move from Google and by setting it to default even more so, it is easily undone. People also need to remember that when you are using a service that you are not paying for, you will always be subject to these type of changes and more often than not, you won’t like them.