Senate Letter Criticizes Google for Failure to Disclose Data Vulnerability

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)

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