
Google+ shutting down after users' data is exposed - jfk13
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-45792349
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arkitaip
This is a better article: [https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/08/google-plus-
hack/](https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/08/google-plus-hack/)

Key takeaways:

* A security bug allowed third-party developers to access Google+ user profile data since 2015 until Google discovered and patched it in March, but decided not to inform the world.

* The company decided against informing the public because it would lead to “us coming into the spotlight alongside or even instead of Facebook despite having stayed under the radar throughout the Cambridge Analytica scandal” according to an internal memo.

* Google+ will cease all its consumer services while winding down over the next 10-months with an opportunity for users to export their data while Google refocuses on making G+ an enterprise product.

* The consumer version of Google+ currently has low usage and engagement: 90 percent of Google+ user sessions are less than five seconds.”

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thanatos_dem
Google+ still had 500,000 users? That’s the only really surprising part to me.

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wonderwonder
I never knew Google rotated through that many employees...

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theDoug
Dupe of most of these five posts:
[https://hn.algolia.com/?query=google%2B&sort=byPopularity&pr...](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=google%2B&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=last24h&type=story)

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gscott
The larger the company the more they roll over and give up on new initiatives.
There are a lot of things Google plus could have done, such as when searching
on Google save the link publicly to Google plus similar to how Youtube works
for videos. At least it is easier if you have a startup and someone says what
if Google comes into your space... you can point to all the times Google gives
up just because things need more innovation. Google wants to hit a home run
every time up to the plate and they forget you have to play in the Minor
Leagues and prove you are worth moving up.

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jfk13
Ignoring for a moment that most of those 500K users had probably forgotten
they even had accounts, what strikes me as particularly shameful is that
Google decided against informing anyone back in March when they discovered the
bug.

If they couldn't tell exactly who was affected, or whether any data had in
fact been improperly accessed, shouldn't they at least have notified users of
the possibility their private data might have been leaked?

Oh, but that might have drawn "regulatory interest".... much better to sweep
it under the carpet and hope nobody notices.

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jwilk
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18169027](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18169027)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18169243](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18169243)

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ydnaclementine
imagine working on google+ for the last 8 years

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CyberBoom
This is great news! Seemed like myspace to me.

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vijay_n
When Google's hegemony gonna end ?

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circa
Surprised it took this long

