Google+ to end after security breach
Company fixed March lapse but kept it secret over fear of harming its image, report says.
Google parent company Alphabet Inc. announced Monday that it is shutting down its social network, Google+.
The company cited two major factors in its decision to end the service: its small and unengaged user base, and a newly announced privacy lapse affecting as many as 500,000 users.
The consumer version of Google+ will wind down over 10 months, ending by August, the company said. According to Google’s statement, 90% of Google+ user sessions lasted less than five seconds.
The company said that it will be focusing on the enterprise version of Google+, which was unaffected by the privacy problem. Corporate customers use it as an internal discussion network.
Google said it discovered the privacy vulnerability in March, which allowed thirdparty apps integrated with Google+ to access personal details that the user had marked as private, including name, work experience, birth date and residence.
Shortly before Google’s Monday announcement, the Wall Street Journal reported that Google executives were informed of the privacy breach in March and fixed the problem. But Google did not disclose it to users or the public for fear of tarnishing its image, the Journal said.
According to the report, a memo that Google’s legal team prepared for senior executives said that going public with the breach would likely trigger “immediate regulatory interest” at a time when Facebook Inc. was coming under fire for not preventing the data firm Cambridge Analytica from accessing troves of user information.
The company said that it kept only two weeks’ worth of data logs on who had accessed the buggy Google+ interface, so it could not confirm which users were affected or whether the error was even exploited.
The demise of Google+, launched in 2011, is just Google’s latest social network to limp into the grave.
The Gmail-integrated Google Buzz was dogged by privacy concerns within days of its 2010 debut, leading the Federal Trade Commission to file charges against the company, alleging that it had violated its own privacy policies and deceived users into joining the social network.
Google ultimately settled with the FTC, agreeing to regular privacy audits through 2030. Users also filed a class-action suit against the company, resulting in an $8.5-million settlement.
An earlier Google social network called Orkut launched in 2004 and gained a mass user base in India and Brazil by the late 2000s, but shut down in September 2014.
The death of Google+ and news of its privacy issues come as major tech companies face increased scrutiny over their handling of user data. Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai has agreed to appear at a House Judiciary Committee hearing later this year over concerns about privacy and other issues. The U.S. Senate is slated to hold hearings on stricter privacy laws Wednesday.