Google+ Data Leak Will Mean Earlier Closure – what you need to know?

Another huge data leak has been revealed by Google, and it may have affected around 52.5 million people.

A Google+ data leak will see the platform closed early, after more user data was exposed. This news has been confirmed by Google via a blog post, an investigation is still in progress.

It is understood that the bug was identified with an update to its API for the service. This latest revelation comes just a couple of months after FileHippo told you that Google+ was Going Away (For real this time).

How serious could the leak be?

No evidence that the data was misused has been found by Google. However, hypothetically speaking, developers had access to the information for six days. It is understood that user passwords were not exposed by the leak. Accounts cannot be compromised by hackers using these details directly. But there is a fear that theoretically malicious users could use the details to trick authentic users into handing over details.

Data that could have been leaked may include real names, ages and email addresses. Even if users had set their profile to private, they would still have been affected. Since the news broke on Monday December 10, leading publications have reminded users that companies like Google will never ask for personal details over email.