Google’s Foray into Social Media with Google+ has come to an end.  And the reasons of it  will definitely not go well with the consumers across the world.

According to a Wall Street Journal Report , a software glitch within Google+ potentially gave third-party developers access to hundreds of thousands of user’s private data. The Concerning part of it is that after Google became aware of the aware of the glitch, they  chose not to inform those affected by the issue. According to the reports, sources close to the matter claim the decision to keep the exposure under wraps was made among “fears of regulatory scrutiny and cause reputational damage.”

According to the WSJ, the vulnerability was active between 2015 and 2018. According to Google :”We found no evidence that any developer was aware of this bug, or abusing the API, and we found no evidence that any profile data was misused.”

Following the report being published, Google announced that it launched its internal investigation into third-party developer account access to Google and Android products. They are calling it Project Strobe. Because of it they found the security hole and patched it. According to Google, they have made sure that something like the Google+ leak doesn’t happen again and to do that they are protecting the user’s privacy by limiting the amount of data developers have access to across the web and Android.

One of the Changes that Google has said it’s doing that they are giving User’s more control over their data by introducing more in-depth permission dialog boxes. As you can see in the screenshots above, instead of offering just a master “Allow” button that gives the third-party access to various items, the new permission box will be more small, and will provide users with the ability to allow or deny each type of data.

Google is also making some changes to its Gmail Application and is limiting Android apps that request to receive Call Log and SMS permissions. Now, only apps that fit a particular use will be able to access these permissions.

Because of all of this, Google announced that it would be shutting down Google+ for consumers. The search giant states that it wasn’t able to maintain “a successful Google+ product that meets consumers’ expectations.” The user-facing aspects of the platform will shut down over the next 10 months.

However, Google+ will continue as a product for Enterprise users. It’s by far the most popular use of the social network. Therefore, the company has made the decision that Google+ is better suited as an internal social network for companies, rather than a consumer product. Google will announce new Enterprise-focused products for Google+ in the near future.

Source:[Engadget]

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