Apple's Beats brand in April unveiled the Powerbeats Pro, a redesigned wire-free version of its popular fitness-oriented Powerbeats earbuds.
Google Shuttering Google+ for Consumers After Undisclosed Data Exposure
The Google+ social network that Google introduced back in 2011 suffered from a major bug that Google opted not to disclose to the public, reports The Wall Street Journal.
A Google+ software glitch provided outside developers with the ability to access private Google+ profile data from 2015 to March 2018. In the spring of this year, internal investigators discovered the issue and fixed it.
The problem was caused by a bug in a Google+ API designed to let app developers access profile and contact information about the people who signed up to use their apps. Google found that Google+ was also allowing developers to access the data of users who had their profiles set to private. Up to 438 apps had access to customer data.
During a two-week period in late March, Google ran tests to determine the impact of the bug, one of the people said. It found 496,951 users who had shared private profile data with a friend could have had that data accessed by an outside developer, the person said. Some of the individuals whose data was exposed to potential misuse included paying users of G Suite, a set of productivity tools including Google Docs and Drive, the person said. G Suite customers include businesses, schools and governments.In an internal memo, Google's legal staff recommended against disclosing the bug because it would invite "immediate regulatory interest" and result in a comparison to Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Data from hundreds of thousands of users was potentially accessible, but Google did not discover misuse of the data by outside developers. Exposed data included names, email addresses, birth dates, gender, profile photos, places lived, occupation, and relationship status.
Phone numbers, email messages, timeline posts, and direct messages were not accessible.
As a result of the data exposure, Google today announced that it is shutting down Google+ for consumers and introducing new privacy measures. According to Google, it put together a privacy task force called Project Strobe at the beginning of the year to review the company's APIs.
Buried in a long document describing all of the privacy changes being implemented, Google confirms that a Google+ bug made private Google+ content accessible to developers.
Google explains that it did not opt to disclose information about the exposed data back in March because there was no evidence of misuse and no action a developer or user could take in response.
The review did highlight the significant challenges in creating and maintaining a successful Google+ that meets consumers' expectations. Given these challenges and the very low usage of the consumer version of Google+, we decided to sunset the consumer version of Google+.Google is planning to shut down Google+ over a 10-month period, with the social network set to be sunset next August.
In addition to shutting down Google+, Google is introducing several other privacy improvements. More granular controls will be provided for granting Google Account data to third-party apps, and Google is going to limit the number of apps that have access to consumer Gmail data.
For Android users, Google will limit the apps able to access Call Log and SMS permissions on Android devices, and contact interaction data will no longer be available through the Android Contacts API.
Google's full list of privacy changes can be found in its new Project Strobe blog post.
[ 248 comments ]
Top Rated Comments
(View all)
12 months ago
Choosing to intentionally not disclose a data breach is the lowest of the lows.
12 months ago
You will struggle to get me to believe Google+ ever had “thousands” of users...
12 months ago
Once again Google ****s with peoples data and nothing happens.
Imagine if Apple did something like that, the coverage would be HUGE.
Imagine if Apple did something like that, the coverage would be HUGE.
12 months ago
Google is a threat to industry security. They have no problem calling out other companies and their security issues, sometimes before even alerting said company.
But when their own products have security issues, let's sweep it under the rug.
But when their own products have security issues, let's sweep it under the rug.
12 months ago
Choosing to intentionally not disclose a data breach is the lowest of the lows.
"In an internal memo, Google's legal staff recommended against disclosing the bug because it would invite "immediate regulatory interest" and result in a comparison to Facebook's Cambridge Analytica scandal."
Seriously. Hopefully some non-immediate regulatory interest and backlash will come their way over this. Reminds me of Yahoo sitting on their data breaches.
12 months ago
But Google: We can't trust you, because you don't actually do what you say, or say what you actually do. No relationship is possible without trust. Your integrity is zero.
12 months ago
It had been dead for years anyways.
It was dead the day it came out and it has remained that way. The only reason it has as many "users" as it does is because it forced a lot of people into it through YouTube, etc and none of them have ever posted anything.[ Read All Comments ]
For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Vessel to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win a Signature 2.0 Backpack.
Vessel makes all kinds of backpacks, briefcases, and bags, but...
Discounts on the latest iMacs remain ongoing this month, with Amazon and B&H Photo now offering a new all-time-low price on the 27-inch Retina iMac with 8GB RAM and a 1TB Fusion Drive. This model...
Google and Apple calendars are not playing friendly right now.
As alerted to us by multiple MacRumors readers, there appears to be a syncing issue with Google Calendar and Apple's...
Apple Music today launched a new curated playlist called "New Music Daily," which as the name suggests, is updated every day with fresh songs.
Made up of "new music you simply...
Taylor Swift revealed today on Instagram that she will be the next partner in Apple's "Music Lab" sessions, which are available in Apple retail stores.
The Music Lab session will...
Satechi today announced the Type-C Dual Multimedia Adapter, which plugs into two of the MacBook Pro's USB-C ports to offer a handful of add-on ports.
In total, this includes: one 4K HDMI...
Spotify today announced that it is extending its free-trial period for Spotify Premium to three months, up from the previous one month that users would have to try out the paid service. With this...
OtterBox today announced a new expandable wireless charging system that it calls "OtterSpot," which includes one charging base that can power up multiple batteries and a smartphone...
