Google shutting down Google+

Google will be shutting down their social network Google+ after a bug was discovered in its API that exposed up to half a million users personal details.

Once the issue was found, it was patched and audited by a third-party developer. The API was intended to provide public profile data to applications, but the applications also had access to fields that were not marked as public.

Google discovered the bug back in March but opted to not inform their customers immediately. Google has decided to shut down their consumer platform version, but will continue to provide the business version for internal use. The wind down of Google+ will take approximately ten months with a permanent retirement date of August 2019.

Google now joins Facebook and Twitter in disclosing a privacy breach in the past three weeks.