To me, it depends on how they got this "recommendation". If I mentioned that I liked the product on Google+ or Google Play and that recommendation was public. Sure, fair game. But, how likely is this really? Very few people (at least in my network) seem to use Google+ like that. But, if they got the recommendation based on search history or from some other method that is not explicit, then I certainly have a problem with it.
TLA and Google's terms and supplementaries [0] seem pretty explicit: "Whenever you comment on, follow or +1 a page while logged in with your Google account" "This only happens when you take an action (things like +1’ing, commenting or following) – and the only people who see it are the people you’ve chosen to share that content with".
Nothing is being made visible that wasn't previously visible, it's just that content is now appearing alongside other stuff.
The concern, I think, is from the side of the user whose photo appears next to an ad. I didn't read the new ToS but I don't want a company to decide when and to whom I endorse a product.
You decide if you want to endorse the product. You +1'd the product. You left a review on the product page or one Google Maps. This data is already shown. If you didn't want people to see your +1 or your review, why would you +1 or review it?
The fact that you, nominatively, +1'd something is shown?
> If you didn't want people to see your +1, why would you +1 it?
Let's not collapse +1 and reviews, reviews are expected to be nominative and public unless otherwise specified. A +1 is (was) an anonymous message to the content creator/owner, and an aggregated message to other viewers (through the +1 count). Just because you enjoy Tenga's Iroha Midori and want to tell Tenga they made a customer happy does not mean you want all your acquaintances to know.
"These new endorsements will only be visible to the people who you originally shared that activity with though; most content will therefore be restricted to a specific circle from Google+, although ratings and reviews posted on Google Play or Google+ Local will be visible to the wider public."
Reviews are public, like they're meant to be. +1's are restricted to whomever you shared the +1 with in the first place. Does this not entirely mean that this data is shared with the relevant people already? The only difference is that this is being merged with AdSense.
Again, if you didn't want people to see your +1, why would you have shared that +1 with these people in the first place?
The "I didn't read the ToS" bit is getting a bit old.
By now it's well known that companies put things like this in their ToS. People who claim to value privacy, or want to make sure their data isn't used in a certain way should be reading the ToS.
> By now it's well known that companies put things like this in their ToS.
By now it's well known that companies do things like this. Whether it's in their TOS is irrelevant, and whether you read it is irrelevant. You just have to assume they're going to do things like this, just like you have to assume that the NSA is reading your proctology results.
