Sunday, June 14, 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

    British Indian MP Priti Patel slams BBC over Modi coverage

    British Indian MP Priti Patel slams BBC over Modi coverage
    In a letter to BBC Director General Lord Tony Hall dated May 19, Priti Patel, British prime minister David Cameron's Indian diaspora champion, brought to notice the complaints she received about BBC Newsnight aired May 16, which covered the day the results of India's general elections were announced.

    British Indian MP Priti Patel slams BBC over Modi coverage

    Volcanic ash grounds flights in Australia

    Volcanic ash grounds flights in Australia
    Ash plumes billowing from an Indonesian volcano have cut off all air services to Darwin city in Australia's Northern Territory and grounded flights to Bali, a popular tourist destination in Indonesia, the media reported Saturday.

    Volcanic ash grounds flights in Australia

    US seeks transformational cooperation with India: US Defence Secretary

    US seeks transformational cooperation with India: US Defence Secretary
    US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel Saturday said he is planning to visit India later this year to drive "transformational cooperation" with the country which is playing an "active role" in strengthening security in Asia.

    US seeks transformational cooperation with India: US Defence Secretary

    Boko Haram kidnaps two traditional rulers in Nigeria

    Boko Haram kidnaps two traditional rulers in Nigeria
    Suspected Boko Haram gunmen have kidnapped two prominent traditional rulers in Nigeria, a security source said Friday.

    Boko Haram kidnaps two traditional rulers in Nigeria

    India releases 37 Pakistani prisoners

    India releases 37 Pakistani prisoners
    India Friday released 37 Pakistani prisoners lodged in Indian jails, reciprocating the gesture made by the Pakistani government earlier. The Pakistani prisoners, including 32 fishermen, have reached home.

    India releases 37 Pakistani prisoners

    43 injured in China quake

    43 injured in China quake
    A 6.1-magnitude earthquake jolted a county in China's Yunnan province Friday, injuring 43 people and forcing the evacuation of 35,000 people.

    43 injured in China quake