By now, even if you weren’t a Google Plus user, everyone knows that there was a Google Plus vulnerability. We also know that Google admitted to not disclosing the Google Plus vulnerability for fear of bad press. While the vulnerability exposed the data of Google Plus users. The good news is, none of that data got into the wrong hands. Still, for some, that doesn’t excuse Google from not disclosing this vulnerability to its users.
Now, three United States senators are asking questions of Google. Particularly they want to know why Google delayed disclosing the Google Plus vulnerability issue. The three senators are John Thune (R), Jerry Morgan (R), and Roger Wicker (R). In a letter sent to Google, the senators also ask if the vulnerability was disclosed to any federal agencies. They also inquire if there have been any other similar incidents the company has not disclosed.
“Google must be more forthcoming with the public and lawmakers if the company is to maintain or regain the trust of the users of its services,” the letter said.
This comes hot on the heels of a lawsuit brought by two former Google Plus users who are upset with the company for not disclosing the vulnerability. The lawsuit, Matt Matic and Zak Harris v. Google, claims that Google was “lax” in its approach to security which resulted in the vulnerability that exposed the details of 500,000 Google Plus users.
“Worse, after discovery of this vulnerability in the Google+ platform, Defendants kept silent for at least seven months, making a calculated decision not to inform users that their Personal Information was compromised, further compromising the privacy of consumers‘ information and exposing them to risk of identity theft or worse,” Joshua Watson, the attorney for Matic and Harris wrote in the civil complaint filed on Monday.
But it’s not just Republican senators and consumers piling on Google for this problem. Three Democratic senators have also asked the FTC to investigate the Google Plus situation and gather more data.
It’s clear that consumers and the government are ready to hold tech companies feet to the fire when it comes to their handling of users information and data. It will be interesting to see what comes out of this whole situation.
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[button link=” https://www.reuters.com/article/us-google-congress/u-s-senators-asks-google-to-explain-delay-in-disclosing-vulnerability-idUSKCN1ML2B6?utm_source=reddit.com” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Reuters[/button][button link=”https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/10/google-users-upset-over-data-leak-sue-google/” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: Ars Technica[/button]
