A software glitch caused Google to expose the personal profile data of hundreds of thousands of Google+ users during the past spring and managers there chose not to go public with the information, according to a report Monday in The Wall Street Journal.
In the wake of the publishing of the Journal’s story, Google announced via a blog post late Monday morning that it had closed down the social networking service for consumers.
Exposure of this kind is exactly the kind of news Google didn’t need but the fact that leaders decided not to disclose is only going to exacerbate the problem.
According to the newspaper, the glitch enabled outside developers to access the data between 2015 and March 2018. The glitch was fixed and Google concluded that nothing nefarious was done with the information.
The Journal reporters wrote that they reviewed a memo prepared by Google lawyers and policy experts that warned that disclosing the glitch would cause “immediate regulatory interest.”
They also noted that it would trigger comparisons with Facebook’s scandal involving Cambridge Analytica. Google CEO Sundar Pichai was brief on the plan after the decision not to inform the public was made, according to the Journal’s sources.
In Google’s blog post, while the company did not directly address the Journal’s story, it said it had undertaken an effort, called Project Strobe, that would review third-party developer access to Google account and Android device data.”
This story is developing…
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