Google is shutting down G+ for its users after a security lapse

Google admits G+ is essentially Defunct Because of huge Security lapse in which up to 500+ accounts are affected. A Specific API (Application programming Interface) allowed a developer to access of certain pieces of user information which would have included the users name, email address. Google say that the Private messages were not exposed. But any developer who had accesses to the API (Application programming Interface) and who had figured it out can request it.

Google says Google+ currently has “low usage and engagement” and that 90 percent of Google+ user sessions last less than five seconds.  Google is shutting down the consumer version of G+ due to the personal data of up to 500k accounts were exposed between 2015 to march  of 2018 which included names, ages, gender, email-addresses, Relationship status among other information, Google says they found no evidence that this information was misused and that they had known about the bug from march of 2018 but decided to not tell users about it until the  a Business focused U.S newspaper The Wall Street journal said “Google Feared to disclose this incident to the public  which could lead to stricter regulations “. A Google spokesperson quickly came to its defense. The API in which about 300 developers used were able to accesses the users or the user’s friends profile information.

Let me tell you about what I think about all this. Around the time of March 2018 Facebook were facing many problems with its drip in bad information. I think that if Google had disclosed this fact about its security lapse. There would be a shift of conversation from Facebook to Google. When Facebook and twitter went to Washington to speak to congress Google didn’t show up. But Google takes privacy and user privacy very seriously. All tech companies right now are reexamining their role with not just users but also the users data provided to them.  The GDPR( General data Protection regulation) has pretty strict penalties for not enforcement of consumer data protection.  So Google decided to shut down G+ which could take 10 months to shut down its full service. In addition to this Google have decided to announce its new privacy adjustments for other Google services. API changes will limit developers’ access to data on Android devices and Gmail. Developers will no longer receive call log and SMS permissions on Android devices and contact interaction data won’t be available through the Android Contacts API. That same also API provided basic interaction data, like who you last messaged, and that permission is also being revoked.

The main emphasis is that there was not a ton of information that was leaked in this G+ data breach and also it’s a failed project of Google which when they launched in 2011 thought it would rival Facebook. So Google are shutting G+ down. If hackers got into the G-mail account or Google docs account. That could lead to more consequences.

This shows us how Google are concerned about the shutdown of g+ and shows how disposable things are in face of accountability.