Should Lawyers Delete Google+ Profiles After the Latest Bug?
Even if you're a die-hard Googler, and use all of Google's services, you may want to consider deleting that Google+ profile before the company retires the service in April 2019.
If that date sounds different than what was previously announced, that's because it is. Last October, Google announced that the Google+ service was afflicted with a bug that left user data exposed. At that time, it explained that the service, which was suffering due to no one using it, would be officially closed down in August 2019. Unfortunately, this week, another bug was announced (and reported as fixed). Apparently this bug exposed private data for over 50 million Google+ profiles.
No Harm, No Google+, No Foul
Fortunately for the 52.5 million users affected, Google claims that there was no malicious activity, and the people who had access to all this private information didn't even know about it.
Unfortunately for those committed to the platform until its final digital breath is taken, Google has moved up the euthanasia date of the already dead service by four months. Also, many people are preemptively deleting their Google+ profiles ahead of the shutdown so as to avoid any other massive failures from exposing their private data (not that anyone every really posted anything on Google+ anyway).
Should Lawyers Delete Google Plus?
Depending on what and how you use your Google+ profile, you may want to consider jumping on the bandwagon and just deleting it ahead of the shutdown. However, if you actually have some strong marketing tied to your individual Google+ page, you may want to think twice before deleting your profile.
Individual lawyers may want to try to convert their individual profiles into business profiles for the Google My Business service, and definitely need to make sure they have their presence established on Google Places before getting rid of their Google+ page.
Related Resources:
- Say Goodbye to Google+ (FindLaw's Technologist)
- Google+ Dead? Is Google Seeing the Light? (FindLaw's Technologist)
- California's New Law for the Internet of Things (FindLaw's Technologist)