10/08/2018

Google+ Will Shut Down Following Security Breach

Report finds Google+ exposed user data to outside developers

A Google+ security breach gave outside developers access to the private data of hundreds of thousands of the social network’s users between 2015 and March 2018, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Google neglected to report the breach to the public, allegedly out of fear that the company would face regulations and damage to its reputation, according to sources and documents obtained by The Wall Street Journal.

In a memo cited by the Wall Street Journal, Google’s legal and policy staff warned against disclosing the breach, fearing it would draw comparisons to Facebook’s mishandling of user data, when more than 50 million Facebook users had their personal information leaked to the data firm Cambridge Analytica.

The information exposed in the Google+ data breach included full names, email addresses, birth dates, gender, profile photos, places lived, occupation and relationship status.

Please select this link to read the complete article from The Guardian.