(Image source from: News18.com)

Internet giant Google on Monday said it is shutting down the consumer version of its own social networking platform Google+ due to reduced usage and a defect discovered in March earlier this year that could leak the data of about half a million of its users.

"The consumer version of Google+ currently has low usage and engagement: 90 percent of Google+ user sessions are less than five seconds," said Google, which is headquartered in Mountain View in northern California, Xinhua reported.

Google on Monday said it is going to shut down Google+ in the coming months seven years after it was launched as a social networking site of its own name brand.

The end of Google+ as well came as a consequence of a bug discovered last year but acknowledged for the first time by Google on Monday, and the defect in one of its Google+ "People APIs" (Application Programming Interface) exposed some private user data to third-party developers, comprising such information as the genders, occupations, email addresses, ages and of many users.

"We discovered and immediately patched this bug in March 2018," Google said, but the flaw, which has existed since 2015, could potentially affect up to 500,000 Google+ accounts.

"Our analysis showed that up to 438 applications may have used this API," Google said. However, "We found no evidence that any developer was aware of this bug or abusing the API, and we found no evidence that any Profile data was misused."

The Google+ vulnerability was discovered at a time that almost coincided with the notorious privacy leak scandal of the social media giant network Facebook, which has been widely criticized for its nonaccomplishment to protect its users' private data.

Social media giant Facebook has been under heavy investigation over its privacy policy after a British data mining company Cambridge Analytica was accused of illicitly accessing the data of 87 million Facebook users without their knowledge.

Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg was summoned to a hearing in the United States Congress in April this year to explain the firm's security measures and how it handled users' privacy.

-Sowmya Sangam