Google+ incurred a data breach which exposed the private data of hundreds of thousands of users. It was claimed that developers could obtain data such as, full names, email addresses, birth dates, gender, profile photos, places lived, occupation and relationship status, but did not include phone numbers, messages or posts.

Google+ is a social networking service, launched by Google in 2011, as a possible competitor to Facebook. Google+ enables sharing and interaction with other users, it also integrates some Google services, for example, YouTube.

Google allegedly opted not to disclose the data breach for fear of drawing regulatory scrutiny and reputational damage. People briefed on the incident have said that outside developers had potential access to private data between 2015 and March 2018 – which is a significant duration.

Data on Google is available to outside developers through over 130 different channels known as application programming interfaces, or APIs. These tools usually require a user’s permission to access any information but they can be misused. Google said it plans to tighten the access of data it provides to outside developers through APIs, however, restricting access to APIs will likely have implications to some developers helping Google to build useful apps.

Due to the data breach, new data privacy measures have been announced including, significantly, the permanent closure of all consumer functionality of Google+. The move effectively destroys Google’s attempt to directly rival Facebook in a social media sense.

This closure is part of a broader review of privacy practices, with the company determining that it needs tighter controls on several of its major products, and comes at a time when the handling, security and privacy of personal data by major platforms and providers seems to be regularly in the news.