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Google+ Shut Down After Data Breach and Cover-Up are Exposed

posted by martyb on Tuesday October 09 2018, @05:23AM   Printer-friendly
from the how-many-projects-have-they-shuttered? dept.

takyon writes:

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.

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by canopic jug on Tuesday October 09 2018, @06:14AM (2 children)

    by canopic jug (3949) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday October 09 2018, @06:14AM (#746310) Journal

    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.

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  • (Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday October 09 2018, @06:35AM

    by Arik (4543) on Tuesday October 09 2018, @06:35AM (#746312) Journal
    So it's mixed news then - the general public is insane - but not nearly so insane as alphabet soup would like them to be.

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  • (Score: 5, Touché) by maxwell demon on Tuesday October 09 2018, @08:13AM

    by maxwell demon (1608) on Tuesday October 09 2018, @08:13AM (#746329) Journal

    Second, the public wants more fine-grained control over data leakage from Google's services.

    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.

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