Facebook rescinds Harvard student’s internship after he exposes security flaw

An attempt by Facebook to limit the embarrassment brought on by a student-developed app that exposed a security flaw may have blown up in its proverbial face.

A Boston.com report published Wednesday evening details how Harvard student Aran Khanna, who was preparing for an internship at Facebook, lost that opportunity because of an app called Marauder’s Map. That app, which Khanna launched about three months ago, used Facebook Messenger data to map the locations of users—even if they weren’t friends with the person using the app.

Khanna wrote about the app on Medium in a post titled “Stalking Your Friends with Facebook Messenger.” He wrote:

Everyone I have shown this extension to has been anywhere from surprised to appalled that this much of their very personal data is online for their friends (and even complete strangers) to access. So it … seems that there is an issue.