Google shuts Google Plus after ‘leak which exposed 500,000 people’

Google Plus launched in 2011 but never really took off (Reuters)
Google Plus launched in 2011 but never really took off (Reuters)

Not many will mourn the passing of Google’s unpopular Plus social network – but the end has come suddenly, after Google announced a huge privacy flaw.

Google admitted that up to 500,000 people’s personal information had been exposed in March – and said it was shutting down Plus for consumers.

The flaw could have allowed apps to harvest information including email addresses, occupations, gender and age.

Google launched the social network in 2011, with features including ‘Circles’ so that users could share information with groups such as friends or family only, but it never became popular.

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The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources, said Google deliberately avoided disclosing the problem at the time, in part to avoid drawing regulatory scrutiny.

In a blog post, Google said there was no evidence that any of the information was misused, and that was a reason it had delayed announcing the problem.

Google said in a blog post, ‘To give people a full opportunity to transition, we will implement this wind-down over a 10-month period, slated for completion by the end of next August.
‘Over the coming months, we will provide consumers with additional information, including ways they can download and migrate their data.

‘At the same time, we have many enterprise customers who are finding great value in using Google+ within their companies.

‘Our review showed that Google+ is better suited as an enterprise product where co-workers can engage in internal discussions on a secure corporate social network.’