After several years of trying to position Google+ as a social network alternative to the likes of Facebook, Google has announced that it is shutting down the service to the general public after a serious data breach has been exposed.
Google+ shutting down after data leak affecting 500,000 users
Google is catching some heat for this one because their security researchers tend to announce security issues with competing companies on strict deadlines, essentially forcing the competing companies to scramble to fix the security issues before Google announces it publicly, and now Google has been caught failing to disclose a security break that lasted several years and exposed the personal details of nearly 500,000 Google+ accounts.
As part of their public statement addressing the breach they slipped in that they'll be closing the service to "consumers". In other words, it'll still be there, in parts at least, for commercial entities but for end-users it'll be closing down.
Google's advice? If you have a Google+ account you should assume that your data was exposed.
Google+ shutting down after data leak affecting 500,000 users
Google is catching some heat for this one because their security researchers tend to announce security issues with competing companies on strict deadlines, essentially forcing the competing companies to scramble to fix the security issues before Google announces it publicly, and now Google has been caught failing to disclose a security break that lasted several years and exposed the personal details of nearly 500,000 Google+ accounts.
As part of their public statement addressing the breach they slipped in that they'll be closing the service to "consumers". In other words, it'll still be there, in parts at least, for commercial entities but for end-users it'll be closing down.
The Google+ services are expected to be shut-off within a year. OK, sure, Google+ is shutting down but what about the half-million people who had their info accessed? Turns out that Google doesn't have logs going back more than just a few months so they are unable to tell who had their account info accessed and who didn't.The review did highlight the significant challenges in creating and maintaining a successful Google+ that meets consumers’ expectations. Given these challenges and the very low usage of the consumer version of Google+, we decided to sunset the consumer version of Google+.
Google's advice? If you have a Google+ account you should assume that your data was exposed.