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How's that a privacy concern? Imagine a gmail user in your address book who has not signed up for Plus or you don't care about that person. He/she would be seeing your Plus feed unintentionally. Of course your feed is public in the first place, but the key term here is "intentional". Why would you want to showcase your public items in Plus to some unconcerned people in your Gmail address book?

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There's no need need for the vast majority of users to make any of their posts public. My posts are only accessible to people who I have in my circles.

Indeed. Considering that HN is one of the most tech-aware communities on the Internet, it continually surprises me how much people here want "security by obscurity" in managing their personal online communications.

If there are people who you don't want seeing your public posts, regardless of whether they currently have Google+ accounts or check them on a regular basis, don't make them public. Simple.

The 800 pound gorilla that Google is, forcing everyone to go Social, isn't targeting tech-aware communities on the Internet. They know they wouldn't go anywhere if they were to just target the tech-aware public. So, the comment above is in general.

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