{"id":38006,"date":"2018-12-13T14:50:18","date_gmt":"2018-12-13T13:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/?p=38006"},"modified":"2019-04-26T18:30:25","modified_gmt":"2019-04-26T16:30:25","slug":"google-kills-off-google-even-sooner-than-expected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/2018\/12\/google-kills-off-google-even-sooner-than-expected\/","title":{"rendered":"Google kills off Google + even sooner than expected"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Last October, Google announced they were <\/span>sunsetting the consumer version of Google +<\/a> following some privacy breaches and low usage<\/span>. The deadline was August 2019. Because of yet another bug, the demise will come earlier.<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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One bug too many<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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A new bug <\/span>was discovered<\/span><\/span><\/a> following the November update. <\/span>Once again, it affects the API (Application Programming Interface), this piece of software used by third-party applications<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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52 million users were in connection with the flawed API. <\/span>Again, the personal data not usually made public (real name, gender, email, occupation) could <\/span><\/span>be accessed by<\/span><\/span> malicious third-parties<\/span><\/span>. Other personal data such as financial data or password <\/span>were unaffected<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Quick response to the bug<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The bug <\/span>was identified<\/span><\/span> quickly<\/span><\/span> and patched. The breach lasted 6 days before it <\/span>was corrected<\/span><\/span>. The last breach had gone on for 3 years and was only announced 10 months after patching.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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This time, both the response and the announcement were swift. <\/span>Google’s monitoring of API usage (which can analyze the past two weeks of usage) indicates no-one <\/span><\/span>took advantage of<\/span><\/span> the breach<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The end of Google + (again)<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The decision had <\/span>been made<\/span><\/span>, last October, to end the consumer version of Google +.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The cover-up of the previous incident, amid the Cambridge Analytica aftermath, didn’t contribute to make Google a transparency champion<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai <\/span><\/span>was summoned by<\/span><\/span> the American Senate to explain that cover-up<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The Google + API <\/span>is flawed<\/span><\/span> and prone to attacks and such breaches were bound to happen again. Each bug lowers trust a little more.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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In order to<\/span><\/span> give consumers time to migrate to other services, Google had decided to end its social platform in August 2019<\/span><\/span>. Following the latest bug, the delay <\/span>is reduced<\/span><\/span> to 90 days, meaning it will end next April.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The Google Suite, used by professionals, will not <\/span><\/span>be affected<\/span><\/span> and maintenance will continue for this service<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Wising up?<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Because the handling of the last breach caused quite an uproar, it’s reassuring to see the lesson has <\/span><\/span>been learned<\/span><\/span>. No cover-up or white lies in front of commissions. It seems Google finally sticks to its own Project Zero rules: 90 days to patch a flaw before it <\/span>is made<\/span><\/span> public.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Or is there a yet bigger flaw which will not have to be released as the service will now close in 90 days… ?<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last October, Google announced they were sunsetting the consumer version of Google + following some privacy breaches and low usage. The deadline was August 2019. Because of yet another bug, the demise will come earlier. \u00a0 \u00a0 One bug too many \u00a0 A new bug was discovered following the November update. Once again, it affects<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":38007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[113],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-finance"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}