Tuesday, June 16, 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

    Crimea starts reforms to move toward Moscow

    Crimea starts reforms to move toward Moscow
    The newly-proclaimed Republic of Crimea is scheduled to start using Russian rouble as its official currency from March 24, the republic's parliament speaker has revealed

    Crimea starts reforms to move toward Moscow

    Did Pakistan know about Osama bin Laden's hideout?

    Did Pakistan know about Osama bin Laden's hideout?
    The denunciation came in the light of a New York Times report published Wednesday stating Pakistan's then Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha knew where Bin Laden had been hiding, Xinhua reported

    Did Pakistan know about Osama bin Laden's hideout?

    Missing Malaysia Flight MH370: Suspicious Objects Give Fresh Twist

    Missing Malaysia Flight MH370: Suspicious Objects Give Fresh Twist
    Chinese naval vessels were heading for the south Indian Ocean off the Australian coast Thursday after a fresh twist was given to the mystery of the missing Malaysian airliner with Australian authorities reporting that suspicious objects were found in the area.

    Missing Malaysia Flight MH370: Suspicious Objects Give Fresh Twist

    Ukraine to move UN for demilitarisation in Crimea

    Ukraine to move UN for demilitarisation in Crimea
    Kiev will ask the UN to grant the crisis-hit Crimean peninsula the status of a demilitarised area, the Ukrainian foreign ministry said.

    Ukraine to move UN for demilitarisation in Crimea

    Russian parliament approves accession of Crimea

    Russian parliament approves accession of Crimea
    The Russian State Duma or lower house of parliament Thursday approved a federal law on the accession of the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, where the Russian Black Sea fleet is based.

    Russian parliament approves accession of Crimea

    Breaking: Possible Debris of Missing Malaysian Jet Located In Indian Ocean

    Breaking: Possible Debris of Missing Malaysian Jet Located In Indian Ocean
    Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced Thursday that objects possibly related to the Malaysian airliner that went missing March 8 have been found in the southern Indian Ocean.

    Breaking: Possible Debris of Missing Malaysian Jet Located In Indian Ocean