Google+ to shut down early after data from 52 million users exposed

The discovery comes just two months after another major bug with the condemned social network

Google+ has become a ghost town in recent years, with people preferring other social networks like Facebook and Twitter (REUTERS)

Google has pushed forward the shutdown of its failed Google+ social network following the discovery of a major data breach that exposed personal data of 52.2 million users.

Details of the latest breach come just two months after Google announced that a bug put the data of 500,000 Google+ users at risk.

The bug prompted Google to announce that Google+ would officially shut down in August 2019, however this has now been expedited to April.

The company said there was no evidence of user data being misused in either instance.

Google's vice president of product management David Thacker explained in a blog post how the latest bug was discovered after testing a software update introduced in November.

"[We] fixed it within a week of it being introduced," the post stated. "No third party compromised our systems, and we have no evidence that the app developers that inadvertently had this access for six days were aware of it or misused it in any way."

Despite this claim, security experts have previously warned that the pervasiveness of Google means users should be weary of what data they share with the technology giant and how.

"Lots of people keep a ton of really valuable data in their Google account, so unauthorised access could be really damaging," Brian Vecci from the security firm Varonis, told The Independent in October.

"On top of that, when you get access to someone's primary email – which for many people is Gmail – you've got the keys to their online life. Not only do you have their login, which is almost always their email, you have the ability to reset any password since password reset links are sent via email."

In response to these comments, a Google spokesperson said that a review by the firm's Privacy and Data Protection Office highlighted "the significant challenges in creating and maintaining a successful Google+ that meets consumers' expectations."

The spokesperson concluded: "Given these challenges and the very low usage of the consumer version of Google+, we decided to sunset the consumer version of Google+."