Scroogling elgooG - Google reportedly hid a major security bug with Google+ (and Google+ is dead for consumers)

[D13H4RD]

Another day, another Google product that doesn't work the way it should.

 

It's been revealed that Google+ has a pretty significant bug which allowed some information such as email addresses and age to be exposed even when set to only be privately viewed.  While Google said that no evidence was found that showed tampering of such data, it's apparently significant enough to be one factor in Google+'s death for the consumer side.

Quote

he company says it closed the bug in March 2018 shortly after learning of its existence. The WSJ reports that the company chose not to report it because of fear of “immediate regulatory interest” that would lump Google in with Facebook, according to one source’s description of the incident. At the time, Facebook had just publicly disclosed that data mining firm Cambridge Analytica had illegally purchased tens of millions of users’ profile information from a third-party app maker, who had gleaned that information from people who logged into a personality quiz and inadvertently granted the app access to their friends list.

 

The shutdown will take place over the course of the next 10 months, concluding in August of 2019. It still plans to make Google+ available as an enterprise product for companies, which is a curious move for a product that had a massive, exploitable bug built into a core API for three years. “We’ve decided to focus on our enterprise efforts and will be launching new features purpose-built for businesses. We will share more information in the coming days,” Smith writes.

Source: The Verge (yes, the same website who made that controversial PC, though not the same group)

 

And yes, Google+ is going to die for consumers

Quote

Google is going to shut down the consumer version of Google+ over the next 10 months, the company writes in a blog post today. The decision follows the revelation of a previously undisclosed security flaw that exposed users’ profile data that was remedied in March 2018.

 

Google says Google+ currently has “low usage and engagement” and that 90 percent of Google+ user sessions last less than five seconds. Still, the company plans to keep the service alive for enterprise customers who use it to facilitate conversation among co-workers. New features will be rolled out for that use case, the company says. Google is focusing on a “secure corporate social network,” which is odd considering this announcement comes alongside news that the company left profile details unprotected.

Source: Also The Verge

 

D13H4RD's opinion

Honestly, I have never used Google+, even though I have a Google account that's tied deeply into Google services. There's just nothing significant that makes me want to use Google+ over other competing services. However, on the topic of the bug, it's astounding that such a bug was allowed to exist between 2015 and 2018. It just really strikes me as something that really shouldn't be allowed to exist for this long, especially for a service provided by a large company the size and scale plus influence of Google.

 

But maybe this is Google slowly turning its back on "Don't be evil"?

 

On the note of Google+'s death for consumers, as I said before, never used it in any significant manner, so I will not be missing it. Google's decision to force people to use their service was really the many nails in its coffin.,

[Syntaxvgm]

Time for the next version 

 

Google++

[Shally]

Google should take the same path as Intel and have Google++++++

[dtaflorida]

Another google app bites the dust... and nothing of value was lost. Most ppl I know don't even know about G+, those that do won't even care if it shuts down, hell they won't even know it's shut down unless I mention it. 

[PlayStation 2]

Nice to see that YouTube forced account makers to make a Google+ account for a good few years!

[orbitalbuzzsaw]

About damn time

[Sniperfox47]

Q.Q Goodbye Google+, you will be missed.

 

It's my go to source for developer news about Android and for a lot of gaming topics.

 

@D13H4RD2L1V3 you say it shouldn't have existed that long but until a security flaw like this is found it can't really be fixed. There have been major security flaws in Windows, WPA Supplicant, the Linux Kernel, iOS, and many other platforms that have existed years without detection. They fixed it shortly after being alerted to it. That's pretty much all you can expect.

[captain_to_fire]

First thing I saw after opening the Google+ app. 

[Doobeedoo]

How great it must be to have such a bug for 7y

[TetraSky]

As far as "user data" being exposed goes, that's pretty minor.
Hell, I don't even mind, my email was leaked dozen of times already through other services/websites that were hacked, even assuming it was exposed, it'd be dumping a water cup in the ocean, makes no difference as to what information is out there.

In any case, I won't miss Google+, only used it because it let me have the username I wanted on youtube.

[captain_to_fire]

3 hours ago, D13H4RD2L1V3 said:

It just really strikes me as something that really shouldn't be allowed to exist for this long, especially for a service provided by a large company the size and scale plus influence of Google

Remember Spectre and Meltdown? Those vulnerabilities existed for at least 20 years and was only brought to Intel’s attention around late 2017. 

[ZacoAttaco]

3 hours ago, Syntaxvgm said:

Time for the next version 

 

Google++

3 hours ago, KendoSapion said:

Google should take the same path as Intel and have Google++++++

It'll be like the new iPhone, GoogleMax.

 

Plus is so 2013 c'mon guys. Max is in.

 

On Topic: Google+ was too heavily tied into Google services, to the point where I couldn't distinguish Gmail contacts from Google+ contacts, everyone was forced to make an account, I think they forced anyone using YouTube to start using Gmail and so that tied into Google+ as well.

 

They were late to the party and it wasn't very clear why I would choose Google+ over Facebook or another competitor, it didn't offer anything unique.

 

[WereCatf]

Personally, I'm really sad Google+ is going down. Yes, it's quite terrible and there's a huge amount of spam there, but it was still a great source for news and interesting projects; I follow some 3D-printing, maker-, Arduino-, ESP8266/ESP32-, embedded hardware-, DIY-electronics etc. commmunities there and it was great to be able to just open the G+ - app on my phone and see if there's some new, interesting post in any of those communities. The posts appeared in the order of whatever was the newest, not based on popularity or likes or whatever stupid shit, it didn't try to spam me to "react" to the posts or anything like that, all of which made it such a good, clean source.

 

With Google+ going down, I don't know what else to move to I really wish there was something else that filled the spot, but none of Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and whatever other shit I've seen people telling people to move to instead works, they're all absolutely terrible alternatives

[williamcll]

This is all an elaborate plan by moot to bring Google+ users back to 4chan.

[Shreyas1]

I'm more surprised it still exists tbh 

 

Spoiler

░░░░░███████ ]▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄ Bob is building an army.
▂▄▅█████████▅▄▃▂ \☻ This tank & Bob are against Google+
Il███████████████████]... ▌\︻╦╤─ Copy and Paste this all over
◥⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙▲⊙◤.... / \ YouTube if you are with us

 

 

 

Edited October 9, 2018 by Shreyas1

[Bananasplit_00]

Google+ was stillborn and only has users because it was shoved down our collective throats, I'm glad to see it finally die 

[matrix07012]

 

[Linus_torvalds]

Gr8!