Page 5 - BMMGuru Monthly Issue 21
P. 5
Tech News
#BMMGuruWeekly
Google+ to shut
down after user
information exposed
Google Plus, an Internet-based social network expectations," Ben said in an announcement.
owned and operated by Google has lately been in
"Given these challenges and the very low usage of
the news over the exposing of data of up to
the consumer version of Google+, we decided to
500,000 users. Google, the search giant didn't
sunset the consumer version of Google+."
disclose the vulnerability because it reportedly
feared regulatory scrutiny. The company's Shutting down of Google+ only applies to
technical staff discovered the bug in March and individuals as the product is better suited for
decided not to disclose the issue to its users businesses and will continue in that form. The
because they hadn't found anyone that had been company also mentioned that the ones who were
affected at that time, the company said in a blog on the Google+ train will have 10 months to
post. transition away from it, during which time they
will be provided with information about how to
Around a week ago, Google announced on its blog
migrate their data.
that it will shut down Google+ after discovering
that private user information may have been The memo, according to The Wall Street Journal,
made public and the reason being a bug in the warned that disclosing the problem would invite
software that allowed apps, an access to profile regulatory scrutiny and that Sundar Pichai,
fields that were not marked as public. Google's chief executive, would likely be called to
testify before Congress.
Even though the exposure claimed was minimal,
it still included the names, email addresses, Earlier this year, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's
occupation, gender, and age of the users. They chief executive, testified in congressional
did not have access to phone numbers, messages, hearings about Cambridge Analytica's (British
Google Plus posts or data from other Google research organisation) role in Trump's Campaign
accounts, the company said. which had apparently gained access to the
personal information of up to 87 million Facebook
Google looked at the ?type of data involved,
users inappropriately.
whether we could accurately identify the users to
inform, whether there was any evidence of After the following incident, Google claimed that
misuse, and whether there were any actions a they will look into the security for all apps that
developer or user could take in response. None of ask for access to user data and that the
these thresholds was met in this instance,? Ben consumers will get more fine-grained control
Smith, a Google vice president for engineering, over what account data they choose to share with
wrote in the blog post. each app.
"The review did highlight the significant Launched in 2011, in 2015 90 per cent Google+
challenges in creating and maintaining a profiles have never made a single post.
successful Google+ that meets consumers? - Zoyena Ansari
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