On Monday, Google said it would shut down the consumer version of its Google+ social network by the end of August 2022, after a vulnerability exposed the personal data of up to 500.000 users between 2015 and March 2022.
In addition to this serious security problem, the Californian giant has also made a clear statement: Google+, launched in 2011 to attack Facebook, has not met with the expected success with the general public. “90% of Google+ user sessions last less than 5 seconds,” admitted Google in its blog post.
The investigation conducted following the discovery of the bug did not reveal any misuse of the data and the problem was fixed in March. But Google's Privacy and Data Protection department deemed the vulnerability did not meet the critical threshold of security concerns to notify users of the data breach. However, according to the Wall Street Journal, the vulnerability was not disclosed because Google did not want to risk drawing the attention of authorities.
You may have deleted your Google+ profile a long time ago. But if this is not the case and your account is in hibernation, here is the procedure to follow to make it disappear. Please note that any account deletion is final and irreversible.
Download your data
To back up data you've shared to your Google+ account, including photos, go to the Download your Google data page and select Google+ (and any other Google product for which you want an archive of your data).
Click on Next, then customize how you want your archives to be created. You may receive a download link by email, the archive may be added to Google Drive, Box, Dropbox or Microsoft OneDrive, with the links emailed to you. Click on Create an archive to start the process.
Delete your Google+ profile
Log in to your account at the following link http://plus.google.com/downgrade and follow the instructions to delete your Google+ profile. If you don't see the deletion page but instead see an update page, you've already deleted your Google+ profile (or didn't have one).
If you have the Google+ Android app, disable or delete it
Google states on a support page that the Google+ app cannot be deleted on some Android devices. However, it can be disabled on all Android devices. In any case, you must go to the Android Settings of your smartphone and then choose Applications and notifications>Applications, select Google+ and press uninstall ou deactivate depending on the option offered.
