Google+ is shutting down.
From its launch, its performance has been disappointing, but that’s not what prompted the decision to close its doors.
The reason behind that it a security breach.
According to searchenginejournal.com:
During a security audit, Google discovered the following:
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A bug in one of the Google+ People APIs meant that apps also had access to Profile fields that were shared with the user, but not marked as public.
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Data is limited to static, optional Google+ Profile fields including name, email address, occupation, gender and age.
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The data breach does not include any other data a user may have posted or connected to Google+ or any other service.
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The bug was discovered and immediately patched in March 2018.
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The profiles of up to 500,000 Google+ accounts were potentially affected.
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Google cannot confirm which users were specifically impacted by this bug.
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There’s no evidence that any developer was aware of this bug or abusing the API.
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There’s no evidence that any profile data was misused.
It’s unlikely that Google+ will be sorely missed. However, if you are a regular user, there will be more information forthcoming in the next few months to help you download and migrate your data.
Source: searchenginejournal.com