Earlier this week Google experienced a data leak on 404 media. This was confirmed when a recent report from 404 Media revealed six years’ worth of privacy and security issues.
“At Google, employees can quickly flag potential product issues for review by the relevant teams” Google explained to 404 media.
It is however believed that reports obtained are from 6 years ago and examples of the flags resolved earlier.
The report from 404 Media exposed thousands of internal privacy and security issues tracked by Google from 2013 to 2018.
One of the privacy issues flagged in the recent leak is about Google making YouTube recommendations based on deleted watch history and noting that someone was manipulating customer marketing accounts on its ad platform
There were also more as Google noted that more than one million user email addresses from the company were publicly exposed for over a year for Google data privacy.
The 2017 Nintendo leak was also referenced and following the report, it was leaked by a Google contractor who worked for YouTube.
Google data privacy Leak Confirmed
Google confirmed that the employee had downloaded the video using an admin account and shared it with a friend who then posted it on Reddit. The company labeled the entry unintentional.
Later, a privacy report also stated that Google Street View had stored license plates of numerous vehicles from photos to voices of about 1000 children to improve its speech recognition services around the launch of YouTube Kids, and privately uploaded videos were made public for a while.
Another example was the case of an unknown person tampering with customer accounts on Google ads to change affiliate tracking codes and Waze’s carpool feature leaking users’ trips and work/home addresses.
Google however claims to have resolved the issues, but it’s still remembered in the minds of users and does not show professionalism on the side of the company.
Google Cloud Recently Launched The Accessibility Of A New Operation Called Generative AI Ops