Australia’s regulators are planning to question US-based Google over its action to conceal the potential leaking of 500,000 users’ personal details to developers, according to the office of Information Commissioner Angelene Falk (OIAC).
In particular Falk wants to know just how many Australian users were caught up in the attempt to conceal the potential leaks in March this year.
The cover up of the breach took place before the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, took effect in May. But it still can bring massive fines in Australia heading up to the billions of dollars, informed sources say.
A statement by Falk’s office said: “Google’s public statements state that it has found no evidence that any user profile data has been misused.
“However, the OAIC will be seeking further information from Google about the incident, including whether Australian users of Google+ were affected.”
The Wall Street Journal has this week reported that Google has found that 496,951 users worldwide who had shared private profile data with a friend could have had that data accessed by an outside developer.
