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from the how-many-projects-have-they-shuttered? dept.
Google+ shutting down after users' data is exposed
Google is shutting down much of its social network, Google+, after user data was left exposed. It said a bug in its software meant information that people believed was private had been accessible by third parties. Google said up to 500,000 users had been affected.
According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the company knew about the issue in March but did not disclose it. The WSJ quoted an internal Google memo that said doing so would draw "immediate regulatory interest".
In a statement, the firm said the issue was not serious enough to inform the public. "Our Privacy and Data Protection Office reviewed this issue, looking at the type of data involved, whether we could accurately identify the users to inform, whether there was any evidence of misuse, and whether there were any actions a developer or user could take in response. None of these thresholds were met here."
Also at The Verge, Engadget, and CNBC.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @05:33AM (2 children)
Google failure. "Extremely low use rate" seems to be the language I have heard elsewhere. Most sessions lasting for ~5 seconds. Off to the trash heap of other abandoned Google projects.
(Score: 3, Touché) by coolgopher on Tuesday October 09 2018, @06:10AM (1 child)
Hah, you'd be lucky if a google+ page had even finished loading in those 5 seconds!
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @12:49PM
In particular after the "material design" rework, with its constantly expanding and collapsing posts...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @05:59AM (2 children)
The real failure is that Google cannot be trusted with anything of importance, and people who have followed Google's behavior pattern of abandoning projects know this is true.
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So the REAL failure is the loss of credibility -- Google is as trustworthy as a crack whore.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Freeman on Tuesday October 09 2018, @04:34PM
I dunno, seems like they've had pretty stable google mail and google search services.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by Dr Spin on Tuesday October 09 2018, @09:05PM
But the corresponding success is that the EU will not have any budget deficit in the foreseable future.
Warning: Opening your mouth may invalidate your brain!
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @06:11AM (1 child)
Maybe Facebook can go next?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by FatPhil on Wednesday October 10 2018, @08:51AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by canopic jug on Tuesday October 09 2018, @06:14AM (2 children)
Google executive Ben Smith has issued a press release or sorts about the first four findings from Project Strobe [www.blog.google], the audit of many of its services. He also wrote about Google's initial responses to these findings. I'll paraphrase the findings: First, Google+ did not gain enough traction for their liking so they'll pull the plug. Second, the public wants more fine-grained control over data leakage from Google's services. Third, Gmail is tied to various services and the public expects that to stay limited. Fourth, same expectations for Android phone permissions like SMS and contacts.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday October 09 2018, @06:35AM
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 5, Touché) by maxwell demon on Tuesday October 09 2018, @08:13AM
Really? I suspect the vast majority would be happy with a single course-grained option: No data leakage at all. Well, actually it doesn't need to be an option; make it mandatory.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by stretch611 on Tuesday October 09 2018, @08:25AM (2 children)
This is just more proof that the motto of old [time.com] is truly ignored.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Spamalope on Tuesday October 09 2018, @11:12AM (1 child)
"whether we could accurately identify the users to inform" - the compromise was complete, and we don't have logs indicating who was compromised or how much was taken, and we're using that as an excuse to not inform the victims at all because they'd have to admit the scope.
"whether there was any evidence of misuse" - you can't prove criminal activity with the information is directly attributable to this breach (in part because we don't even know what was taken), so we're interpreting that as no harm. *fingers in ears* singing la la la I can't hear you
"whether there were any actions a developer or user could take in response" The horse already left the barn and we don't have political cover
"looking at the type of data involved" it wasn't data our direct commercial competitors can use
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @12:58PM
So they don't know who may have been affected by this, but they were able to determine that they would not suffer any competative losses.
"We're not sure who this hurt but we know it wasn't us!"
(Score: 2) by DavePolaschek on Tuesday October 09 2018, @01:50PM (1 child)
Subject-line snark stolen from https://www.flutterby.com/archives/comments/25474.html [flutterby.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @02:49PM
Didn't they force everybody on YouTube to get a google plus account?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 09 2018, @05:35PM
I was waiting and waiting for an integration of Google Photos with Google+ . That never happened which indicates Google+ has been on death row for years.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday October 10 2018, @07:15PM
I will miss Google+. One of the few so-called social networks where the signal-to-noise ratio was useful.