Google+ was a disaster. It was riddled with problems from the beginning and died a slow death, croaking for good when it was found to have severe security issues it knew about and covered up. Google+ was originally meant to be a Facebook competitor and the ‘social’ side of Google.
However, the Wall Street Journal reported in 2018 that Google+ had exposed the private data of hundreds of thousands of users for years, that it knew about the security issues, and that it chose not to say anything for fear that regulators would come down hard on them.
The company was forced to acknowledge the leak and admitted that the private data of half a million accounts was unsecured.
Where is G+?
No one worked at G+ by the time the lawsuits started. Google’s fix for the issues that plagued the unit was to shutter it.
The lawsuit we refer to here (Matt Matic and Zak Harris v. Google) was filed in October 2018 and blames Google’s lax approach to security for the problems. It draws attention to the fact that Google chose to cover up the vulnerabilities on the G+ platform for seven months, further exposing private consumer information.
The case’s full details are public at googleplusdatalitigation.com.
Settlement
In June 2020, the case was finally settled when Google agreed to pay $7.5 million. Half the money went to cover legal and administrative fees, and with about 1,720,029 people filling out the correct forms, the cut for each person adds up to a laughable $2.15.
Not to worry, though. G+ was taken out back and dispatched in April 2019 and can’t hart you anymore.
Details of the leaks indicate Google+ had an active leak from 2015 to 2018 that allowed devs full access to all kinds of information, including private profiles.
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