I belong to several different Google Groups - all of which require privacy. One such group is a group of neighborhood moms who use the Google group to coordinate play dates with each other’s kids. We certainly don’t predators to know where and when we’ll be hanging out in public places with our children nor do we want our addresses, kids’ names, and other information posted publicly. My other group involves a circle of fellow writers who regularly critique each other’s manuscripts. None of us want our works in progress circulating on the Internet.
When you first set up a Google Groups, you have an option to make it: Public, Announcement Only, or Restricted. Public groups are open to anyone who stumbles across your group and wants to join it. Announcement groups are also open to anyone though only managers are able to perform many functions. Restricted groups are by invitation only. No one but members can view any information posted.
What if you originally set up a group as a Public or Announcement group but would prefer to make it private? Fortunately, this is easy to do. First, sign into your Google Group. You must be a Group owner in order to make this change. On the right side of the screen, you’ll see a list of options. Click on Group Settings. Next, click on the Access tab.
Now, you must go through each option and change it for complete privacy. The most critical options to change are:
- Who can view - change to “Only members can view group content”
- Directory listing - change to “Do not list this group”
- Who can join - change to “People have to be invited”
- Who can post messages - change to “Members only”
If you’re unsure about whether your group is private or not, you can quickly check your group’s status by going to the “About this group” link on the right side of the screen. This will show you a summary of the group’s membership, description, language, category, access, group e-mail address, and feeds. Look under Access. You will see who can view the group content, who can join, who can create pages, who can upload files, and who can post. If any of these settings are not restricted to members or managers only, click on “edit” and make the required changes.
That’s all there is to it!
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