If you’re one of the relatively few people who use Google+ in something other than an Enterprise setting, be advised that the clock is ticking. Google has just announced that they’re sunsetting the service. It will be going offline for consumers at some point over the next ten months.
The reasons for their decision are complex. In part, it stems from the fact that the company readily acknowledges that it has “low usage and engagement,” which is underscored by the fact that 90 percent of Google+ user sessions last less than five seconds.
Another major component driving the decision is that the company suffered serious pushback when it revealed a previously undisclosed security flaw that exposed users’ profile data. The company patched the issue in March of this year (2018), but the company’s long delay in going public with the flaw didn’t sit well with Google+’s user base.
Note that the company plans to continue offering Google+ for Enterprise customers to facilitate intra- and inter-company communications. In fact, they plan to roll out a raft of new features in the year ahead.
Google also recently announced other changes. Pending API changes, one new feature will limit developers’ access to data on Android devices and user Gmail accounts. Also, contact interaction data will soon be off limits, as will call logs and SMS permissions.
There are changes coming to Gmail itself as well, where developers will be sorely limited in how much access they have to user emails.
As Ben Smith (the company’s VP of engineering) explains, “Only apps directly enhancing email functionality–such as email clients, email backup services and productivity services (e.g., CRM and mail merge services)–will be authorized to access this data.”
Any developer who currently has this level of access can expect a security assessment and agree to the company’s new rules. We’ll provide more details as they become available, but broadly speaking, these are good changes that will enhance data security for the company’s legions of users.
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Google has recently made some changes and improvements to its G-Suite. It introduces new tools designed to allow managers and admins greater visibility into how the people in their organizations use the G-Suite.
File this one away under “watch your permissions.” It’s recently come to light that an unknown number of third party apps have access to read emails sitting in your Gmail account.
Malicious code can wind up on your PC or phone by any number of roads. Companies do their best to guard the digital passes, but invariably, things get missed and the hackers find a way in. It’s a constant battle, and sadly, one that the good guys are losing.
Change is coming, and not everyone is happy about it. Recently, Google redesigned its G-mail interface, and since then, they’ve allowed their free users to opt into the new changes. G-Suite users may or may not see the option to try the new interface, depending on whether their administrators have enabled the option and made it visible.
Google recently released their Play Store stats for 2017. The results are both encouraging and disheartening. Overall, Google caught and removed more than 700,000 malicious apps from the Play Store, minimizing their impact on the company’s massive Android user base.
Normally, Google’s robust series of checks and audits are pretty good at catching malicious code and preventing it from making its way to the Play Store. Sometimes, however, something slips through anyway despite the company’s best efforts. This latest one is particularly bad.
A duo of researchers stumbled across a series of vulnerabilities in literally hundreds of GPS services that leave sensitive GPS tracking data open to hackers. Dubbed “Trackmageddon” by the researchers, the vulnerabilities span a range of weaknesses that include default or easy-to-guess passwords, IDOR (Insecure Direct Object Reference) issues, insecure API endpoints, and data collection folders that are entirely unsecured.
The owners of Android devices have been able to properly view vertical videos for more than two years, but for Apple users, it was a different story.
Chromebooks have brought Android apps to a much wider market, making them accessible to virtually everyone, but the Chrome OS has always lagged behind other platforms developmentally.
