As a follow on to my thoughts on creating and managing circles earlier in the week, as I continue to play with Google+ I find that the greater issue is not the time and effort to manage the lists, but rather the false sense of security they provide.

This morning for the first time I decided to Share someone elses post on Google+, the original post looked like this

This post originated with a person not in my stream, when I view their Profile I see other posts but not the one that was Shared by a person who is in my circle, which was shared with a Limited group of people.  I didn’t notice the Limited  on the screen until I went to Share the post when I was prompted with this:

This is very similar to when I wrote about protected Twitter accounts, sure you can protect your account, but any follower you approve can subsequently retweet or share your tweets with others.

I think Circles are going to lull people in to a false sense of security that when they share with a Circle it will stay within that circle only.  A simple pop up warning isn’t going to do it.  I am all for sharing just make sure you understand who you are sharing what information with, and what potential path that information may travel.