News Google+ to be shut down following exposure of personal data

[Becky]

Becky submitted a new article:

Google+ to be shut down following exposure of personal data - The bug, which was discovered & patched in March 2018, allowed unauthorised access to personal data

The Wall Street Journal has revealed that Google+ inadvertently exposed personal data to app developers, and did not disclose the oversight to their users. The security flaw was discovered by Google in March 2018, but it was not reported at the time due to concerns about regulatory oversight.

"Google exposed the private data of hundreds of thousands of users of the...

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[V_R]

I'm sure the handful people that use it will be devastated at its loss.

 

[Becky]

Haha, yup

It's not fantastic that they tried to cover it up, surely the best thing nowadays is to admit it once it's patched. It always comes out in the end, and looks far better when the company owns up to it in a reasonable time-frame (and not when leaked) IMO.

 

[V_R]

Indeed! Just goes to show, no one is immune to it.

 

[Abraham Andres Luna]

I think they could have saved Google+ if they had integrated it with all the other major social media platforms. Like I could have linked my Facebook account, and all my posts would show up on the Google+ page automatically.

Just an idea

 

[Becky]

When big companies are hacked, should they have to disclose it immediately?

Interesting question... what do you think? In reality I think companies need to strike a balance; letting people know when security failures occur, but at the same time they shouldn't be required to publicly disclose it as soon as it happens before they know the extent of the problem. That could just lead to panic IMO.