Update 2019:
As you may recall, Google announced shut down of G+ a few months ago, giving it a deadline of August 2019. However, it updated about expediting the closure to April. And finally it has locked in 2nd April 2019 as the official day to shut down G+.
It means that on 2nd April 2019, Google will delete all the content including photos and videos from all your G+ accounts. So, if you have anything to keep from Google+, you will have to start saving the content immediately. You can download you data by following these simple steps.
Again, the process of deleting content from Google+ Pages, Google+ accounts, and Album Archive will not be as easy as it may seem. It may take a few months for Google to delete everything.
Community owners and moderators can download and save their data (author, body and photos for every community post) from early March 2019. In other words, closure of Google+ is inevitable and slowly all the tools (G+ signatures and contact options) connected to G+ will stop functioning. It is recommended that you start removing all your G+ links.
If you are feeling let down by G+ closure, there’s good news! Google is focusing on adding social-like features to search. This will provide more business connection options. However, it is not going to be similar to social network.
2018 Blog:
Yes you heard it right! Google to shut down its Google+ by mid 2019. The decision was taken after a security flaw that exposed user’s information was revealed. Earlier this year, Google tried to quell privacy concerns that appeared in the Wall Street Journal.
David Caroll, a US professor had sued Cambridge Analytica to know what information the company had stored about him. According to him, legal issues of Facebook over Cambridge Analytica cover-up forced Google to keep the leak secretive.
In addition, Google also said that Google + has low usage and user engagement and most of the sessions last less than five seconds.
However, Google plans to continue providing its services to a few patrons who use it to facilitate conversation among its employees. In fact, it plans to roll out new features for such clients. Also, Google plans to secure its corporate social network.
Additionally, the company also announced new privacy features for its other services. According to this, developers will ;
Have limited access to data on Gmail and Android devices
Not be able to receive call log and SMS permission on Android devices
Have no access to contact interaction data through Android Contacts API
Google is also trying to make amends to its email service- Gmail, by updating its User Data Policy. By this, Google wishes to limit apps getting access to user data. Adding to it, Ben Smith, VP of engineering and a Google employee said that apps providing email back-up services and productivity services such as mail merge services and CRM will be authorized to access user data.
These reforms will help a user to have better control over various aspects of their accounts such as calendar entries, Gmail, etc that they allow a third –party to access.
To beef -up the security standards, the developer having access will have to undergo regular security assessment and follow new rules. The developers will have to refrain from selling or transferring data for ads, email campaigns, market research or any other purposes.
According to Google, the new changes are attributed to their internal efforts known as Project Strobe. It basically involved the review of a third party developer access to Google account and Android device data.
However, according to Jeff Hausar (from the Centre for Economics and Policy Research), Google and Facebook are too big to be secure and also too big to trust blindly. And so, he said that for short-term, FTC (Federal Trade Commission) should install public-minded privacy monitors in firms in order to hold them accountable.