Saturday, June 13, 2026
ADVT 
International

Indian American Harvard Student Loses Facebook Internship

IANS, 13 Aug, 2015 02:14 PM
    Facebook cancelled an Indian-origin student's internship after he exposed a serious privacy flaw in the social media giant's messenger service, a media report said.
     
    Aran Khanna's application, Marauder's Map, used data from Facebook Messenger to map users' location when they sent messages, Boston.com reported on Wednesday.
     
    The computer science and math student at Harvard University in Massachusetts, US, posted about his app on social media sites Reddit and Medium in May this year and soon it went viral.
     
    The app caught the attention of Facebook and Mr Khanna was asked to disable it.
     
    However, before it was disabled, the extension was downloaded more than 85,000 times and "shared on over 200 publications", according to Mr Khanna.
     
    About a week later, Facebook released a Messenger app update to provide users "full control over when and how you share your location information".
     
    Facebook cancelled Mr Khanna's summer internship, saying he did not meet the high ethical standards expected from the interns.
     
    The student accepted another internship with a tech start-up in Silicon Valley and later detailed the experience in a case study titled 'Facebook's Privacy Incident Response: A study of geolocation sharing on Facebook Messenger' in the Harvard Journal of Technology Science

    MORE International ARTICLES

    Woman gives birth in British courtroom

    Woman gives birth in British courtroom
    A heavily-pregnant woman gave birth to a baby girl in a court in Britain after going into labour in the witness room, a media report said.

    Woman gives birth in British courtroom

    Gaza toll 213, Hamas rejects ceasefire deal

    Gaza toll 213, Hamas rejects ceasefire deal
    Four more Palestinians were killed Wednesday in a new Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip, taking the death toll in nine days of bombing to 213 even as the Islamic Hamas movement rejected a Egyptian ceasefire proposal with Israel.

    Gaza toll 213, Hamas rejects ceasefire deal

    British Indian MP appointed exchequer secretary

    British Indian MP appointed exchequer secretary
    Indian-origin British MP Priti Patel has been appointed exchequer secretary to the Treasury department dealing with tax policy in a major cabinet reshuffle announced by British Prime Minister David Cameron Tuesday.

    British Indian MP appointed exchequer secretary

    Turned away by hospital, Indian-origin woman gives birth at home

    Turned away by hospital, Indian-origin woman gives birth at home
    An Indian-origin woman in labour was turned away from a hospital's maternity unit in Britain - only to give birth 40 minutes later in her mother's living room, a media report said.

    Turned away by hospital, Indian-origin woman gives birth at home

    Hiring former employees is actually beneficial

    Hiring former employees is actually beneficial
    Returning employees understand the key components of an organisation's work culture and may also be more committed to the focal organisation upon their return, making them less risky hires, says a study.

    Hiring former employees is actually beneficial

    Haryana SGPC brazen interference in the religious affairs of the Sikh community: Badal

    Haryana SGPC brazen interference in the religious affairs of the Sikh community: Badal
    Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal Monday described as "provocative and a brazen interference in the religious affairs of the Sikh community" the action of the Congress government in Haryana in getting a law enacted to set up a separate body for Sikh shrines in that state.

    Haryana SGPC brazen interference in the religious affairs of the Sikh community: Badal