Gmail about to get less private with its new update

Update that allows people to send you emails without having your address

Users of Google's web-based email service Gmail will get messages from total strangers following a system update which allows people to send them emails without needing their address.
The change, announced on yesterday, is designed to integrate Gmail with Google+, the firm's two-and-a-half-year old social network that has 540 million active users.

Currently anyone signing up for a Gmail account is automatically given a Google+ account too.
Google said the new feature will make it easier for people who use both services to communicate with their friends.


Google said that users who did not wish to receive email messages from other people on Google+ could switch the settings so that they receive messages only from people they have added to their networks of friends or from no one at all.


Google said the new feature would not expose the email addresses of any Google+ users to strangers.
Emails from strangers on Google+ will be routed to a special section within the recipients mailbox that is separate from messages from friends and other contacts.