Google stock slides on report of huge security lapse

Google CEO Sundar PichaiAP

Shares of Google-parent Alphabet fell more than 2% Monday afternoon following a report saying the tech giant discovered that it had exposed personal-profile data of hundreds of thousands of Google+ users and then decided not to disclose the details for fear of regulatory scrutiny.

“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,” The Wall Street Journal report said. 

In an internal memo, Google’s legal team advised against revealing the incident as it would create “immediate regulatory interest and invite comparisons to Facebook’s leak of user information to data firm Cambridge Analytica,” according to the WSJ’s report. 

Monday morning in wake Journal’s story, Google announced via a blog post that it had closed down Google+ for consumers and had undertaken an effort, called “Project Strobe,” that would review third-party developer access to Google accounts and Android device data.

Monday’s report comes in the wake of Google CEO Sundar Pichai upcoming testimony before Congress over concerns the search engine is bias against conservatives. Also in recent weeks, Google has been strongly criticized about building a search engine that would censor information as part of a possible-entry into China. 

Alphabet shares were up 7% this year.

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