Google+ was and is an "Internet-based social network service" that was written in JavaScript and enjoyed a strong membership during its initial startup years. The WSJ Tech reported that Google has shutdown the service for good and states "Google opted not to disclose its discovery of a bug in Google+ that exposed the data of hundreds of thousands of users." The online service for the Wall Street Journal said Google feared "repercussions of disclosing to the public this breach" once it was discovered last spring. According to people briefed on the incident by the Wall Street Journal, Google "thought that revealing this breach would draw regulatory scrutiny and cause reputation damage." You can read Google's official statement here.
Douglas MacMillan and Robert McMillan reporting for The Wall Street Journal that "A software glitch in the social site gave outside developers potential access to private Google+ profile data between 2015 and March 2018, when internal investigators discovered and fixed the issue, according to the documents and people briefed on the incident. A memo reviewed by the Journal prepared by Google’s legal and policy staff and shared with senior executives warned that disclosing the incident would likely trigger “immediate regulatory interest” and invite comparisons to Facebook’s leak of user information to data firm Cambridge Analytica."
They went on to say "The closure of Google+ is part of a broader review of privacy practices by Google that has determined the company needs tighter controls on several major products, the people said. In its announcement Monday, the company said it is curtailing the access it gives outside developers to user data on Android smartphones and Gmail."
As of today, October 10, 2018, Google+ is back online but its approach to security is far and away more restrictive to developers.
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