Senate Letter Criticizes Google for Failure to Disclose Data Vulnerability
12 October 2018 - 02:30AM
Dow Jones News
By John McKinnon
WASHINGTON -- Top lawmakers sent a stinging letter to Google on
Thursday over its handling of a data vulnerability that affected
hundreds of thousands of users of its Google+ social media
service.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R., S.D.), in a
letter delivered on Thursday, joined two subcommittee chairmen in
saying they found it "troubling" that Google failed to disclose the
vulnerability after it was discovered.
"At the same time that Facebook was learning the important
lesson that tech firms must be forthright with the public about
privacy issues, Google apparently elected to withhold information
about a relevant vulnerability for fear of public scrutiny," the
lawmakers wrote.
The letter said its authors were "especially disappointed" that
Google's chief privacy officer testified before the Commerce
Committee just a few weeks ago "and did not take the opportunity to
provide information regarding this very relevant issue to the
committee."
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week that Google
exposed the private data of hundreds of thousands of users of its
Google+ social network. The company, a unit of Alphabet Inc., chose
not disclose the issue earlier this year, in part because of
worries that news of the incident would bring on regulatory
scrutiny and reputational damage, according to interviews and
documents.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 11, 2018 11:15 ET (15:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)
Historical Stock Chart
From Feb 2024 to Mar 2024
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)
Historical Stock Chart
From Mar 2023 to Mar 2024