Google kept silent for half a year about data breach at online network Google Plus

In addition, the ability of app developers to access user data on smartphones with Google's Android system is generally restricted. The fact that the internet giant only informed the public six months after discovering and closing the loophole in Google Plus could raise questions from the authorities.

The software glitch could have given app developers access to users' names, email addresses and information about their occupation, gender and age, Google admitted on Monday. No other data was involved. At the same time, Google cannot precisely narrow down the group of affected users. The error was discovered in March 2018 and immediately fixed, it said. However, the gap had already existed since 2015, as first reported by the Wall Street Journal reported.

Google had no evidence of data misuse, but also not enough information to completely rule it out, the newspaper quoted from the documents. In March, the company decided against immediately informing the public about the discovery. One factor was the concern about increased attention from the regulatory authorities - which Google is now certain to receive. In the EU, the General Data Protection Regulation, which came into force at the end of May, strictly stipulates that those affected must be informed.

Profiles from up to 500,000 Google Plus accounts could potentially be affected, the internet company explained, referring to an analysis of two weeks of data in March. However, the company could not provide any further details because usage logs are only stored for two weeks. Up to 438 apps were said to have accessed the interface with the data breach.

Google Plus is currently hardly used by consumers - and 90 percent of interactions last less than five seconds, the company explained. The discontinuation of the consumer version is to be completed at the end of August next year after a ten-month transition period. Google is thus officially admitting its clear defeat in the competition between online networks and Facebook. Google Plus will continue to be used for internal communication in companies.

The changes to the Android mobile operating system, which runs on devices used by hundreds of millions of people, are likely to have a greater impact on consumers. Users will be able to determine more precisely which data they want to share with an app, as Google announced. In principle, fewer apps will have access to call lists and SMS data.

In addition, app developers' access to emails in Google's Gmail service will also be more restricted. The Wall Street Journal reported in the summer that some app developers were using emails from users to train algorithms for automatic responses, for example. This led to criticism.

Dem Wall Street Journal According to the report, Google's lawyers pointed out to top management after the vulnerability was discovered that disclosure would probably trigger "immediate interest from regulators" and comparisons with the Facebook data scandal surrounding Cambridge Analytica. An internal committee had decided not to go public and Google CEO Sundar Pichai had been informed. A Google spokesperson told the newspaper that the decisive factors in such decisions include whether there are indications of misuse and whether affected users can be identified.

Interfaces for app developers also played a central role in the Facebook data scandal surrounding Cambridge Analytica that broke out in mid-March. Until 2015, the online network allowed app developers to access data from a user's friends.

The developer of a survey app not only collected the data of participants in a survey and their friends - and then passed it on to the data analysis company Cambridge Analytica without authorization. Facebook found out about this as early as 2016, but was satisfied with the assurance that all data had been deleted and did not inform those affected. This approach led to massive criticism. (SDA)