Perhaps you've heard the news that Google Plus for consumers is on the way out and will be history in a matter of months.
The social media-ish platform from Google never did catch on like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn. In fact, Google says 90 percent of Google+ user sessions are less than five seconds.
In other words, engagement is low, low, low.
Google Plus bug/vulnerability kept secret
Apparently, the platform also had a known bug that exposed users' personal information.
And even after discovery, Google chose to keep the information quiet that some 500,000 customers were likely affected and had their data exposed. This is a decision that Google defends.
Why did Google hide the bug?
Google says it could not be sure which users were impacted because it only keeps API log files for two weeks before deleting them.
And in a blog post, Google says this:
"Our Privacy & Data Protection Office reviewed this issue, looking at the type of data involved, whether we could accurately identify the users to inform, whether there was any evidence of misuse, and whether there were any actions a developer or user could take in response. None of these thresholds were met in this instance."
Google does not believe there was any misuse of the data, but really has no proof of that.
In the meantime, Google Plus will continue to be an option for corporate messaging purposes, and Google says it will enhance the product and make it more "purpose-built for business."
