Alphabet Inc will eliminate the consumer version of its erroneous social network Google Plus, and made its data sharing policies stricter, as they announced yesterday that a private data leak affecting at least 500,000 people happened. According to the announcement, several hundred external developers accessed users’ data.
In a review posted by Google on its official blog, the giant Internet company announced that no developer exploited the vulnerability or misused data. Also, according to the Wall Street Journal, Google did not reveal its security issues because it feared regulatory scrutiny.
Google did not want a comparison with Facebook
Google, the renowned Internet giant, feared of people comparing it with Facebook which was involved in a private data leak scandal along with Cambridge Analytica. According to the Wall Street Journal, Sundar Pichai, the Google chief executive, was briefed on this problem, but Google offered no official statement.
“Users have the right to be notified if their information could have been compromised. This is a direct result of the scrutiny that Facebook dealt with regarding the Cambridge Analytica scandal,” explained Jacob Lehmann, the Managing Director at the legal firm Friedman CyZen.
Google Plus and its version for businesses
Google launched its Google Plus social network in 2011 in a movement to compete with Facebook which, back then, became the world’s first social media platform.
Google Plus adopted Facebook’s status updates and news feeds, while it also allowed people to organize groups of friends into what the Internet giant called “circles.” However, Facebook implemented many features in comparison with Google Plus. Furthermore, the Google Plus bug found this Monday exposed users to a private data leak, such as name, email address, occupation, gender, and age, as reported by Google.
The Google Plus for enterprises would remain valid, while the Google company would implement new features to forbid private data leak.
