Google to pull off the plugs from Google+ following an undisclosed March 2018 security flaw

Google+, the social networking site by the Google is soon going to shut down. The information was revealed by the tech giant itself in an official blog post today. Google has taken such an extreme step due to the low user rate and an undisclosed security flaw which could have potentially leaked profile data of about half a million of its users.

As per Google, Google+ is experiencing "low usage engagement" and the Google+ user sessions lasted less than 5 seconds for more than 90 percent of the users which is low. However, it's the consumer version which will be taken down; the service will still be active for the enterprise customers. Also, some new feature will be introduced for the enterprise customers who use the service to facilitate conversations among co-workers. The tech giant is reportedly focusing on a "secure corporate social network."

Commenting on the matter Google said "We discovered and immediately patched this bug in March 2018. Our analysis showed that up to 438 applications may have used this API". However, "We found no evidence that any developer was aware of this bug or abusing the API, and we found no evidence that any Profile data was misused" Google added.

Now, Google has announced new privacy adjustments for the other Google services. The company is also bringing some API changes which will further limit the developer's access to data on Gmail as well as Android devices. Going forward, the developers will now not get the SMS permissions and call log on the Android devices. The developers will also not receive the contact interaction data via Android Contacts API.

It comes as a concern that the vulnerability was identified almost at the same time when the social media giant Facebook had been taking the heat for data theft scandal on its platform. It's high time when all these tech giants should start keeping user privacy a top priority.