The end of Google +

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Google today announced that it will shut down the consumer version of Google+ following the discovery of a bug that it opted to keep secret.

"A memo reviewed by the Journal prepared by Google's legal and policy staff and shared with senior executives warned that disclosing the incident would likely trigger 'immediate regulatory interest' and invite comparisons to Facebook's leak of user information to data firm Cambridge Analytica," the Journal says.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai reportedly knew about the plan to forego notification.

In the blog post, Smith says Google discovered the bug in March as part of Project Strobe—"a root-and-branch review of third-party developer access to Google account and Android device data and of our philosophy around apps' data access."

The bug, according to Google, meant that third-party apps had access to "profile fields that were shared with the user, but not marked as public," like name, email address, occupation, gender, and age.

Source: Google+ to shut down following bug that exposed 500K profiles

Pretty amazing. I'm especially glad now that I never signed up for Google+. (I got bad vibes about it right from the beginning — too creepy.)

Huh, goodbye then Google+. Can you please take Facebook with you as well?

I had an account on G+ but I haven't used it in ages.

Why did you find it creepy, Darmok?

They knew about the bug but they kept it secret? Google just keeps getting worse and worse. The only reason I use Android is because I hate Apple even more. I have serious doubts about the security of both of them. I preferred BlackBerry OS but it's no longer supported so I had to get an Android.