Harvard student loses Facebook internship after pointing out privacy flaws

From Boston.com:

Three months ago, Harvard student Aran Khanna was preparing to start a coveted internship at Facebook when he launched a browser application from his dorm room that angered the social media behemoth.

Khanna exposed a frightening lack of security. Facebook messages contain geolocation data. Facebook Messenger has been out since 2011 and they only now told users and provided a way to turn it off. This is an appalling lack of concern for users’ privacy and security.

His firing seems petty and vindictive. But Khanna has a good perspective. He accepted a different internship and said he learned a lot from the Facebook experience. I think we all did.

Could Google steal an election?

Wired poses this question? The article over states the case. Yes, of course, the results google returns can influence a voters decision. But that is the case with all media. The implicit observation is that the influence is changing. Online or “new media” has a greater influence than traditional media. But that is not really news as it has been obvious for a while.