There’s been a lot of news lately about “Google issuing an alert advising 2.5 billion users to change their passwords.” And you didn’t see me blogging about it, because it simply wasn’t true. Around the globe, news media companies chose to be inciteful, not insightful.
And I knew this reporting wasn’t quite right, even when I saw Newsweek and Forbes echoing this nonsense. Yes, there was a small breach at Google. But this incident exposed the “basic contact info” to a “limited set of potential advertisers”. I couldn’t grok how that would translate to every living human rushing to reset their Gmail passwords.
I tried to corroborate this loud headline. I could not find a source. The articles that crowed the loudest referenced other articles, saying the same thing. I scoured the Google blogs and official messaging pages. Nothing appeared there, either.
Until today (9/1/2025), where Google made a statement about this massive misrepresentation. At that official Google site, they clearly state:
Several inaccurate claims surfaced recently that incorrectly stated that we issued a broad warning to all Gmail users about a major Gmail security issue. This is entirely false.
I am sorry if you were worried about the security of your Google accounts. You are still welcome to change your Google password, if it gives you peace of mind. But it is not warranted at this time.
If we can take anything away from this, it’s that even the largest, most-respected news companies can get things wrong. As we consume information, we must also be ready to judge, doubt, double-check, verify sources and question everything. A little critical thinking can go a long way.