Google Plus Breached With Over Five Hundred Thousand Articles
First Facebook, and now Google. Facebook was under global scrutiny over-sharing personal data for Cambridge Analytica, and after that, the company hung its head in shame when hundreds of its accounts were hacked. Many technology companies took this as a red alert and reaffirmed their efforts in securing user accounts against hacks.
But turns out one of the most trustworthy companies, Google has its own problem. Google has been allowing third-party app developers to access data of users who have not just granted permission to do so but has allowed third-party app developers to access the data of their friends.
Scenario Again
And believe it or not, this is the exact reason that got the US Congress to question Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. But this scenario is worse. Google knew about this all along, but the company chose not to disclose this information to avoid public relations a headache and also potential regulatory enforcement.
But Google is not dumb. The company announced that consumer access to Google would be shut down on Google+, and the company would work harder to improve privacy protections for its apps, but also especially third-party applications.
In an official statement, Google disclosed the leak and said that this leak could potentially affect up to 500,000 accounts. The story does not end here. An approximate 438 different third-party applications had access to these accounts and especially private information. But Google does not have access to such private information as they maintain logs of API use for two weeks.
Immediate Measures
Google’s vice president of engineering Ben Smith has said that no evidence was found that any developer had knowledge about this bug. And Google is safe too. In the US, there is no federal law for companies to disclose such a breach. Though California state laws dictate that companies are required to disclose a data leak only if both the individual’s name, Social security number and ID card, or any other important or legal document is disclosed.
Google and various other technology companies have been questioning the trust that is being put on them as user data is something that needs to be guarded and not just shared with any other third party application, especially without the user’s knowledge, nor their permission.
Many have raised their voices against such practices, claiming that monopolistic companies like Google and Facebook should be scrutinized and made sure that things like this should not happen again.
