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Google+ Bug Exposes Non-Public Profile Data for 52 Million Users

posted by takyon on Wednesday December 12 2018, @03:56PM   Printer-friendly
from the social-servers dept.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984

Google+ bug exposes non-public profile data for 52 million users

Two months after disclosing an error that exposed the private profile data of almost 500,000 Google+ users, Google on Monday revealed a new leak that affects more than 52 million people. The programming interface bug allowed developers to access names, ages, email addresses, occupations, and a wealth of other personal details even when they were set to be nonpublic.

The bug was introduced in a release that went live at an undisclosed date in November and was fixed a week later, Google officials said in a blog post. During the time the bug was active, developers of apps that requested permission to view profile information that a user had added to their Google+ profile received permission to view profile information about that user even when the details were set to not-public. What's more, apps with access to users' Google+ profile data had permission to access non-public profile data that other Google+ users shared with the consenting user. In all, the post said, 52.5 million users are affected.

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  • (Score: 2) by Snow on Wednesday December 12 2018, @04:24PM (4 children)

    by Snow (1601) on Wednesday December 12 2018, @04:24PM (#773498) Journal

    There's 52 million Google+ users? Wow, colour me surprised.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 12 2018, @04:36PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 12 2018, @04:36PM (#773505)

    not likely active users. more like all accounts on the current roles.

  • (Score: 2) by rigrig on Wednesday December 12 2018, @04:37PM (2 children)

    by rigrig (5129) <soylentnews@tubul.net> on Wednesday December 12 2018, @04:37PM (#773506) Homepage

    Why? When they wanted it to take off just about every Google service came with a bunch of "You probably want to make a Google+ account to do <whatever you are doing>, click here to sign up" buttons.

    --
    No one remembers the singer.

    • (Score: 2) by iamjacksusername on Wednesday December 12 2018, @05:56PM

      by iamjacksusername (1479) on Wednesday December 12 2018, @05:56PM (#773559)

      I had to make a Google+ account for something... In any case, it is associated with a gmail account that I have had forever. That's what I am mad about. I expect to see an uptick in phishing email sent from authenticated sources for the next few months.

    • (Score: 2) by captain normal on Wednesday December 12 2018, @06:00PM

      by captain normal (2205) on Wednesday December 12 2018, @06:00PM (#773566)

      Not only that, they pretty much force fed it to anyone with a g-mail account. Did the same with "Hang Outs".

      --
      The Musk/Trump interview appears to have been hacked, but not a DDOS hack...more like A Distributed Denial of Reality.