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Google+ to shut down after security bug revealed

Company admitted that there was ‘very low usage’ of its Facebook competitor
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Google+ will be shut down by August 2019. (Black Press Media)

Do you know anyone who still uses Google+?

Well, you may want to let them know the social network will be shuttered by August 2019, after Google acknowledged “very low usage” on the platform.

“It has not achieved broad consumer or developer adoption, and has seen limited user interaction with apps,” the company wrote in a Monday blog post.

“The consumer version of Google+ currently has low usage and engagement: 90 percent of Google+ user sessions are less than five seconds.”

READ MORE: 50 million Facebook accounts affected by security breach

In the blog post, the company said it was closing down Google+ in part because of a security bug it discovered during a March 2018 audit.

The blog post came moments after a Wall Street Journal article alleging that Google knew about the bug but chose not to share the information with users after it found no evidence of wrongdoing.

According to Google, the bug meant that apps also had access to profile fields that were shared with the user, but not marked as public.

The company said that up to 500,000 Google+ accounts were possibly affected.

“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,” the company stated.


@katslepian

katya.slepian@bpdigital.ca

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