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Google's failed attempt at a social media platform, Google+, will soon be coming to an end. In the aftermath of what appears to have been a major security flaw within Google+, the company ended up not disclosing the breach of information to its users. Google itself says the issue was quietly resolved in March 2018, but not before third parties obtained private user data off of Google+ profiles. Google claims that they didn't tell its users because they believed that without sufficient information on who was hacked, they found it wouldn't be useful to identify the public on the matter. Due to this, a memo from Google stated that revealing such a leak wouldn't be beneficial, and would raise concerns, akin to Facebook's own controversial leak.

Around 500,000 users were affected by this, potentially. The bug allowed for developers that had access to Google+'s API to access information of users that gave permission to the program. However, what wasn't known, was that on the given accounts, friends of that profile also had their data made available to developers, even if they made such data private.

In response to this, Google+ will be shutting down for regular users. Despite Google's efforts to keep the platform alive after it has been struggling since its launch in 2011, Google+ will not be available after August of 2019. Names, email addresses, occupation, gender, and age were all accessible, given that developers knew how to make use of the flaw.

To prevent such issues from occurring again, Project Strobe will be introduced. This method will better secure third party APIs with Google services, allowing for less data to be given to outside applications.

Source

 

[_v3]

Does this mean Youtube's comment system will be finally uncrappified??

You came at a time when nobody needed you, you were so bad nobody wanted you, you were forced down our throats and nobody liked you and finally now that you're dead nobody misses you. Good riddance.

 

[PanTheFaun]

It's about time. c:

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

They solve a security breach by shutting down? Wow.

 

[CathyRina]

Literally nobody using the Social Media Network?
Keep that shit alive

Oh fuck it was hacked!
Shut it down RIGHT NOW!

Flawless logic.
Seriously tho this probably should've happened 5 years ago.

 

[GuyInDogSuit]

MySpace needs to be next, followed by Facebook.

 

[dontay0100]

- DECENTRALIZED SYSTEMS!!!!! BITCOIN/CRYPTO!!! ITS TIME..

 

[Deleted User]

YES! Thank you! No more shit-ass Google Plus.

 

[KingVamp]

I hope Project Strobe doesn't mean that they are planning to make a Google+ 2 later on.

 

[hippy dave]

BYE!

They actually removed the use of the + symbol as an operator in google search because of google+ - wonder if they'll restore that.

 

[Ryccardo]

Does this mean Youtube's comment system will be finally uncrappified??

Even better: they will remove the entire comment section (to replace it with a continous loop of video ads with sound)

 

[mrissaoussama]

and don't forget to follow me on google+!

 

[MasterJ360]

I can only see this impacting Youtube in someway

 

[Issac]

I remember back when YouTube tried to force people into using Google+ and stuff... ugh!

 

[Steena]

negotating information censor in china, getting all their shit leaked, having a damn strong partizan internal political propaganda, the entire state of youtube, oof, hopefully some competition comes up because this company has been nothing but sheer idiocy in the last year or two.

 

[SAIYAN48]

Finally, it's dead!

 

[Rabbid4240]

Oh no, some of my data got leaked, guess I have to kill myself - Google+ 2018

 

[RedoLane]

The sound of crickets intensifies

they're my best audience, after all

 

[Deleted User]

good riddance

 

[EmBlaze]

What about my Google+ logins, will they be converted to "Login with Google"? Then there's Google Play Games logins...

*Actually, I can't remember "Login with Google+" having a different sign in page than "Login with Google".

 

[Arras]

Wow, Bob was being serious with his tank and he attacked the Google+ security

Now that's a meme I haven't seen in a long time.

Well, as long as you had a Youtube account you were -forced- to have a Google+ account, even if you didn't use it.
So perhaps it had 19 active users, but a whole more inactive users.
Not sure what data could have been leaked anyway, or how much does google share data between products, let's say your gmail, maps gps data, phone contacts, hangout data, etc.

According to the article, it sounds like you were completely safe if you had no g+ friends. It seems like the equivalent of allowing friends of friends to view your otherwise private Facebook profile. Most of these inactive accounts probably didn't have data on their g+ profile anyway.

 

[Ty_]

Google as a whole is far too monopolistic as it is, glad to see them lose one