Google+ social network is being killed, because of a privacy breach....

[LovingA2andMI]

Source: The Los Angeles Times

Google is shutting down its social network, Google+, the arm of Alphabet Inc. announced Monday.

The company cited two major factors in its decision to end the service: its small and unengaged user base, and a newly announced privacy breach affecting up to 500,000 users.

The consumer version of Google+ will be wound down over 10 months, ending by August, the company said. The enterprise version of Google+ is to continue.

Google said it discovered the privacy breach in March, which allowed third-party apps using the Google+ Application Programming Interface to access personal details that the user had marked as private, including name, work experience, birth date, email address and places lived.

Shortly before Google's Monday announcement, the Wall Street Journal reported that Google executives were informed of the privacy breach in March, at which point they fixed the gap, but chose to not disclose it to its users or the public for fear of tarnishing its image. According to the report, a memo that Google's legal team prepared for senior executives said that going public with the breach would likely trigger "immediate regulatory interest" at a time when Facebook Inc. was coming under fire for not preventing the data firm Cambridge Analytica from accessing troves of user information.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-google-plus-20181008-story.html

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Yes, This Happened....

[democratisphere]

1. All social media is corrupt and should be shutdown.

People and families can stay in touch without this scourge of the internet.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Why do you want DU shut down? DU is social media. "All social media is corrupt".

[democratisphere]

5. I don't believe DU is selling my info to anyone.

[cstanleytech]

11. But dont you realize any site can potentially be hacked and some big ones like Amazon have been

so signaling out the social media websites is a tad silly.

[democratisphere]

13. Social media websites are collecting information on every move you make,

and every breath you take, then selling that info to whoever. I actually don't see anything silly about it and I would think you wouldn't want your info sold too!

[cstanleytech]

14. They generally can only collect it if you do not pay attention and allow them to.

[democratisphere]

15. How do you think the bills get paid for you to use their service?!

Nothing is free

[ManiacJoe]

21. All the free services feed ads to you.

[mahina]

19. I used to think that too. Then I answered the question posed by FB

Do you want to see the organizations that have accessed your profile and information?

It popped up one day. Yes I did.

There were hundreds and I never agreed to any of them. Among them I recall the Heritage Foundation and Cambridge Analytica.

I reached for an iPad to video my scroll down through them and the page clsed by itself and would not reopen. No back arrow or gorwardvarriw. No browser history. No access through Facebook help. I looked for hours. And my account is as locked up as it is possible to do.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

16. Again, DU IS social media. Your blanket condemnation is not informed. . . . nt

[democratisphere]

17. Ignore what you will. There is a difference.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

18. You are not distinguishing the difference. Simplistic blanket condemnations are meaningless. . . .nt

[suffragette]

2. That "regulatory interest" is likely a strong factor. First the Europeans introduced stronger

privacy laws, then (as noted in the article) the US and UK have been looking at the issue more after Cambridge Analytica revelations.

[ToxMarz]

4. I can't wait for the day I read that headline about Facebook

[iluvtennis]

6. Good. Google is too intrusive. And now Apple following suit -argh

[bluevoter4life]

7. I literally did not know this was still a thing

I know exactly ZERO people who have ever used G+. Should have been shut down years ago.

[C Moon]

8. That was a face first attempt anyway.

[thesquanderer]

9. Google: Now Officially Evil

Hiding a security breach, amazing.

[BumRushDaShow]

10. "they fixed the gap, but chose to not disclose it"

Oops.

[cstanleytech]

12. I suspect the real reason its being closed down is its not catching on enough and thus its

not profitable.

[Kentonio]

22. Bingo..

[SWBTATTReg]

20. This will be the bane of all society websites and such things as this if no adequate policing...

of wildly inappropriate comments among members and adequate privacy controls are implemented and maintained on each site.

A few users can and will try to destroy what so many others have attempted to create, a website where users can freely exchange thoughts and ideas w/ each other without fear or without being subjected to trashing by other irresponsible posters. Fortunately we do have insight and clues as to who these users might be and their predictable patterns...posting off the wall comments or remarks totally inappropriate to the website, or just plain nasty.

This has always been a problem w/ all websites and requires constant policing by members (for no online policing by the websites themselves seem to work effectively unless all members cooperate together).

DU is actually a pretty good website, it's policed by numerous members who all have substantial history w/ the website itself for literally decades. We should be pretty proud of what we have here, in that for the most part, all of us can come here and get all kinds of information not just on political news, but just about everything else. Take it from an old IT guy who's been around for some time. This is definitely a website worth saving and keeping.