Google announced it will shut down its unpopular Google+ social media network following media reports of a security breach.
A security bug allowed third-party developers to access Google+ user profile data since 2015. Google discovered and patched the bug in March but decided not to reveal it to the public due to fears of reputational damage and regulatory scrutiny, The Wall Street Journal first reported.
When a user allowed an app to access their public profile data, the app could access their friends’ non-public data from profiles. Up to 438 apps may have used the API and up to 500,000 Google+ accounts might have been exposed. Google says it found no evidence that data was misused.
No Transparency Here
The decision to keep the security bug under wraps broke one of the main tenants of the PR crisis management playbook. PR crisis management experts recommend transparency and releasing potentially negative information before media outlets uncover the problem. In its March decision, Google took the opposite route. It hoped to keep its privacy and security shortcomings out of the public spotlight. That decision will ultimately increase media attention.
Almost immediately after the Journal’s article, Google also announced a plethora of privacy reforms as part of its “Project Strobe” that will impact Gmail, Google accounts and Android devices.
Only the consumer Google+ will disappear; the enterprise version will remain. “Our review showed that Google+ is better suited as an enterprise product where co-workers can engage in internal discussions on a secure corporate social network,” stated Ben Smith, Google’s vice president of engineering, in the announcement.
About the same time Google discovered its security hole, Facebook was grappling with its Cambridge Analytica scandal. Data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica harvested almost 50 million Facebook profiles without user’s permission and used the data to influence U.S. voters ahead of the 2016 election. As a result, many Facebook users said they deleted the app from their phones, vowed to visit the platform less often, or strengthened their privacy controls.
Just last month, Facebook discovered another security breach that allowed hackers to access 50 million user accounts. This time the company announced the security breach on its own volition rather than waiting for the news media to first report the issue. Its engineering team fixed the vulnerability, informed law enforcement, and reset access tokens of about 50 million accounts affected by the breach and another 40 million accounts as a precaution.
Lessons from the Death of Google+
The lack of wide acceptance of Google+ likely saved Google from an even larger security breach and PR crisis.
When it was launched, social media marketers embraced the network, viewing it as the next shiny object, perhaps more to gain SEO points with Google than to engage with audiences. However, the social media network failed to gain widespread popularity, as Google admitted in its announcement. The Google attempt to emulate Facebook has remained on life support, a social media afterthought, in recent years.
The death of Google+ illustrates the risks of relying on single platform or even a limited number of platforms for social media marketing. Companies that focus their marketing efforts on a social media network have no control over what the network does. Social media networks can revamp their services at any time or even make them disappear without notice. Every PR and marketing strategist needs to consider how their business would survive if their go-to social media network drastically changed or disappeared.
Bottom Line: The passing of Google+ provides important PR and marketing lessons. With privacy and data security now a prominent issue, large companies cannot expect to continue to hide significant security issues from the media. Hitching your social media marketing wagon to one social platform can start an ill-starred journey.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
