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Harvard Student Loses Facebook Internship After Revealing How Messenger Tracked Users

The app capitalized on a privacy flaw that Facebook had been aware of for about three years: the Facebook Messenger app automatically shared users’ locations with anyone who they messaged.

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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.

His application, called Marauder’s Map — a clever name that Harry Potter fans will appreciate — was a Chrome extension that used data from Facebook Messenger to map where users were when they sent messages. The app also showed the locations, which were accurate to within three feet, in a group chat with people he barely knew. That meant complete strangers could hypothetically see that he had messaged them from a Starbucks around the corner, while he could see that they had messaged from their dorms.

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The Marauder’s Map app capitalized on a privacy flaw that Facebook had been aware of for about three years: the Facebook Messenger app automatically shared users’ locations with anyone who they messaged.

Khanna tweeted about the app on May 26 and posted about it on Reddit and Medium. Marauder’s Map began to go viral. Facebook, never one to miss a trend, quickly caught on.

Within three days, Facebook asked Khanna to disable the app. The company also deactivated location sharing from desktops, which meant Khanna’s app wouldn’t work even if he hadn’t taken it down. And the company that Mark Zuckerberg famously launched from his Harvard dorm room withdrew its internship offer from this Harvard student, who apparently made the mistake of…launching an app from his dorm room.

Before it was disabled, the extension was downloaded more than 85,000 times, Khanna said.

About a week later, Facebook released a Messenger app update trumpeted as follows in a news release: “With this update, you have full control over when and how you share your location information.”

The description didn’t mention the previous default settings. Nor did it point out that users who didn’t activate the update would continue to share their locations by default unless they manually altered their privacy settings.

Matt Steinfeld, a Facebook spokesman, said the company had been working on a Messenger update long before Khanna’s blog post was published. “This isn’t the sort of thing that can happen in a week,” Steinfeld told Boston.com. “Even though we move very fast here, they’d been working on it for a few months.”

Khanna, who detailed the experience in a case study published Tuesday for the Harvard Journal of Technology Science, told Boston.com he created the app to show the consequences of unintentionally sharing data. That way, he said, users could decide for themselves whether or not it was a violation of their privacy.

Facebook Messenger, the company’s mobile messaging app, had been set up with automatic geolocation sharing since it launched in 2011. CNET drew attention to the issue in 2012 and showed users how to switch off location services. Various updates to the app improved its usability and even introduced fun cat emoji stickers, but the geolocation sharing remained.

Khanna used Messenger frequently when he started studying at Harvard, but didn’t realize how much information he was unintentionally sharing until he began to look at his message history.

The day after Marauder’s Map was posted, Khanna said his future manager at Facebook called him and asked him not to talk to the press. That evening, Khanna received a call from Facebook’s global communications lead for privacy and public policy, who reiterated that Khanna shouldn’t talk to the press because the story had become damaging.

Khanna complied, redirecting all press inquiries back to Facebook.

The next day, Facebook asked him to deactivate the extension. He did, but also updated his Medium post and the extension’s description to make it clear that Facebook asked him to disable the map.

Three days after the extension was posted, and two hours before he was supposed to leave to start his internship, Khanna received a call from a Facebook employee telling him that the company was rescinding his summer internship offer. Khanna said he was told that he violated the Facebook user agreement when he scraped the site for data.

However, Khanna told Boston.com that the data was from his own messages, which meant he used information accessible to all Facebook users, not just to employees.

Khanna then received an email from Facebook’s head of global human resources and recruiting, who told him that his Medium post didn’t meet the high ethical standards expected of interns. Khanna was told that the issue wasn’t the Messenger app itself, but instead the way his blog described how Facebook collected and shared user data.

“This mapping tool scraped Facebook data in a way that violated our terms, and those terms exist to protect people’s privacy and safety,” Steinfeld told Boston.com. “Despite being asked repeatedly to remove the code, the creator of this tool left it up. This is wrong and it’s inconsistent with how we think about serving our community.”

In his first letter to investors back in 2012, Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook follows an approach they coined the “Hacker Way.”

“The word ‘hacker’ has an unfairly negative connotation from being portrayed in the media as people who break into computers,” he wrote. “In reality, hacking just means building something quickly or testing the boundaries of what can be done.”

Khanna thought his extension — which he built quickly and which tested boundaries — was performing a public good by showing users how their data was being used. “I didn’t write the program to be malicious,” he said.

In the end, Khanna had a pretty great summer after all. He accepted another internship with a tech start-up in Silicon Valley. And, he said, the back-and-forth with Facebook turned out to be an “internship experience” in itself that taught him a great deal.

In the closing of his letter to investors, Zuckerberg said one of the five core values of Facebook is for its employees to “be bold.”

But not too bold. source

Censorship

After Years Of Censoring Christians And Conservatives, Is Anyone Surprised That People Are Leaving Facebook In Droves For Sites Like Tik Tok?

Facebook Meta stock lost $200 billion in value in one of the biggest stock drops in history, as users flee for freer sites like Tik Tok.

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Bad news, Mark Zuckerberg. People aren’t really interested in Facebook censorship anymore — let alone your metaverse fever dream. Facebook stock lost $200 billion in value in one of the biggest stock drops in history, as users flee for Tik Tok.

Today, hundreds of millions of ex-Facebook users are wildly cheering one of the biggest stock market collapses of a single company in modern times, a $200 billion devaluation of Meta formerly known as Facebook. Why did Facebook Meta stock crash so hard? Because so many users have fled fascist Facebook for places that don’t censor, ban and suspend you for having a differing opinion like Tik Tok and others. If Facebook disappeared from the planet tomorrow, that’d be fine with me. But don’t go getting your hopes up just yet.

“Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.” Ecclesiastes 8:11 (KJB)

Companies like Facebook Meta, Google, Amazon and even Elon Musk are part of the prophesied coming kingdom of Antichrist, and as such, I fully expect to see Facebook showing record profits in a relatively short period of time. But after having our NTEB Facebook page unpublished last month with its hundreds of thousands of followers, I am going to sit back, pour myself of steaming hot cup o’ joe, and enjoy this little victory against the tyrant Zuckerberg.

Facebook crashes after user base started shrinking

FROM FUTURISM: Stock prices for Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, took a swan dive on Wednesday after the company revealed both a profit decline and, for the first time in its history, a shrinking userbase— leading to a sell off that resulted in a $195 billion stock plunge, Bloomberg reports.

If it holds, the 22 percent dip could be the biggest collapse in market value for a US company in stock market history. A look under the hood shows that the company is dealing with several problems that have culminated into a perfect storm of dwindling profits.

For one, Facebook has yet again failed to grow its daily or monthly active user bases as it faces stiff competition from TikTok and many other upstarts. The company’s advertising growth also slowed as changes to Apple’s iOS made targeted advertising more difficult. There’s also the case of the company’s moonshot goal of creating a workable metaverse. Meta’s AR and VR unit Reality Labs posted a more than $10 billion loss in its first ever financial report, according to CNN. The numbers don’t bode well for its future viability.

“Investors will look at these numbers closely as a first indicator of how far off the Metaverse is from being a profitable reality,” Tom Johnson, global chief digital officer at media agency Mindshare Worldwide, told the broadcaster.

Zuckerberg’s metaverse was always going to be a bit of a long shot. If the recent stock crash is any indication, convincing large swaths of the population to remain on Facebook and purchase a cumbersome VR headset to do depressing metaverse activities is going to be a near impossible task. READ MORE

Meta shares sink more than 20% as Facebook loses daily users

Shares of Facebook’s parent company Meta plunged more than 20% late on Wednesday after the social media company posted a weaker-than-expected forecast. Facebook’s global daily active users declined from the previous quarter for the first time.

Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church

When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. Even all the way to South Africa. We even restarted our weekly radio Bible study on Sunday nights again, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.

But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. If every one of the 15,860+ people on our daily mailing list gave $4.50, we would reach our goal immediately. If every one of our 150,000+ followers on Facebook gave $1.00 each, we would reach 300% of our goal. The same goes for our 16,400 followers on Twitter. But sadly, many will not give, so we need the ones who can and who will give to be generous. As generous as possible.

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJV)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

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The Metaverse Will Be A Full-Time Tracking And Surveillance Platform That Records Your Eye Movements, Facial Expressions And Biometric Data

The Metaverse is trending as Meta Platforms Inc. wants to monitor people’s facial expressions, eye movements, and unique biometric data.

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The Metaverse is trending as Meta Platforms Inc. wants to monitor people’s facial expressions, eye movements, and body poses as well as create “virtual stores” that sell ad-sponsored digital goods in an effort to monetize the metaverse, dozens of recently filed patents suggest.

If you thought that the internet and mindless social media was a digital prison, you ain’t seen nothing yet, what’s coming will make what you see now look about as harmless as a nursery rhyme by comparison. Meta Platform Inc. has been patenting scary digital applications and hardware like crazy, including something called the ‘robot eye’ which will function as a digital version of the all-seeing-eye of Horus.

“Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.” 2 Corinthians 2:11 (KJB)

Remember that Eagles song from the 1970’s called ‘Hotel California’? The lyrics were something along the lines of “Relax, ‘ said the night man, ‘We are programmed to receive. You can check-out any time you like, But you can never leave!” That’s the Metaverse, and that’s no joke. If you are a Bible believing Christian, then resolve within yourself now to have nothing to do with the Metaverse, augmented reality and virtual reality. Nothing, just stay away from it. all of it.

Meta wants to track people’s facial expressions in metaverse

FROM THE NY POST: The company that began as Facebook and which has recently rebranded itself as Meta filed hundreds of patents recently with the US Patent and Trademark Office. These filings shed light on the company’s plans for the internet’s new frontier. The patents, which were first reported by the Financial Times, indicate that Meta wants to use biometric data in order to create a more realistic digital avatar using virtual reality or augmented reality.

Meta also plans to collect data on users so that it could tailor specific ad content while they immerse themselves in the metaverse, the patent filings suggest. One patent filing shows a sketch of a “wearable magnetic sensor system” that the user places around their torso for “body pose tracking.”

Another patent can detect a user’s facial expressions through a headset. The system would then compute the expressions and “adapt media content” based on its findings. The company is essentially following the same business model that translated into tens of billions of dollars in profit through its social network.

Meta also filed a patent for a headset that is equipped with cameras and sensors that ensure the user sees brighter graphics depending on where they’re looking. The firm is also said to be developing an “avatar personalization engine” that can create three-dimensional avatars based on a user’s photos.

“For us, the business model in the metaverse is commerce-led,” Nick Clegg, Meta’s head of global affairs, told FT. “Clearly ads play a part in that.”

Some of the patents appear to have originated in a science fiction movie. In December, Meta was granted a patent for the “mechanical eyeball 100,” which is said to be a “robotic eye designed to resemble a [human] eye.”

The eye is designed to “mate” with an animatronic robot head in an effort to make the eye “appear authentic to an observer,” according to Insider, which first reported the patent filing.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said his company plans to invest $10 billion per year over the next decade to develop metaverse technology. The race to metaverse supremacy has set up a clash of tech titans as Apple and Microsoft have also indicated they plan to spend considerable sums of money to grab a share of the market.

Meta’s push to collect more data could trigger a backlash, particularly in light of claims that the company disregarded its own engineers’ advice and bombarded Facebook and Instagram users with targeted content that was known to be harmful. Shares of Meta rose by more than 1.2% in the first hour of trading on Wall Street on Wednesday. READ MORE

Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church

When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. Even all the way to South Africa. We even restarted our weekly radio Bible study on Sunday nights again, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.

But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. If every one of the 15,860+ people on our daily mailing list gave $4.50, we would reach our goal immediately. If every one of our 150,000+ followers on Facebook gave $1.00 each, we would reach 300% of our goal. The same goes for our 16,400 followers on Twitter. But sadly, many will not give, so we need the ones who can and who will give to be generous. As generous as possible.

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJV)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

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Censorship

Facebook Pulls Plug On Now The End Begins Page In Operation Since 2010 For Telling You The Truth About The COVID Vaccine And Digital Passport

Facebook has silenced Now The End Begins by pulling the plug on our page, after George Soros fact checkers banned our content for truth telling.

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Facebook uses a group funded by George Soros to conduct ‘fact checking’ operations on content posted to their site, and anything that goes against their fascist dictates is removed and the poster put in jail. Now they have silenced NTEB.

In 2010 I wrote “For generations the Bible has warned of the coming End of Days, and you will live to see it. The frightening events in the world financial markets foretells the coming undoing of America by her own elected officials. America, a nation raised up by the Hand of God to spread the Gospel and be a beacon of Freedom for people around the world is about to be forever silenced by those sworn to protect her. YOU are living in the time of The End.” Thus read the original ‘about’ section of the NTEB Facebook page, a page with hundreds of thousands of readers that has now been silenced by the George Soros funded ‘fact checkers’. NTEB is no longer allowed a voice on Facebook, but our voice has never been more powerful.

“Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” Revelation 2:10 (KJB)

My own personal Facebook jail term, which began at the start of December, will not finish until January 5th, 2022, and it has rendered me unable to do anything on Facebook but use Messenger. Mark Zuckerberg, who ironically is a Jew, has much more in common with Adolf Hitler and the Nazis then he has with anything connected to regathered Israel. Zuckerberg hates free speech, hates free thought, and lives for only one thing – to control what you are allowed to do. To that end, Zuckerberg spent hundreds of millions of dollars to sway the 2020 election results in 49 out of the 40 united states. That’s how the elites do election fraud, that’s how they got Biden elected.

“We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me.” ― George Orwell, 1984

Mark Zuckerberg Used Wealth To Sway Election

A former federal election official called the $400 million-plus that Mark Zuckerberg spent to help finance local elections a “carefully orchestrated attempt” to influence the 2020 vote — and recommended that all states ban private funding of election offices. Hans von Spakovsky, a former Federal Election Commission member, said the billionaire Facebook founder’s donations to a pair of nonprofits that doled out the cash to nearly 2,500 counties in 49 states “violated fundamental principles of equal treatment of voters since it may have led to unequal opportunities to vote in different areas of a state.”

George Soros Funds Facebook ‘Fact Checking’

The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) drafted a code of five principles for news websites to accept, and Facebook yesterday announced it will work with “third-party fact checking organizations” that are signatories to the code of principles. Facebook says that if the “fact checking organizations” determine that a certain story as fake, it will get flagged as disputed and, according to the Facebook announcement, “there will be a link to the corresponding article explaining why. Stories that have been disputed may also appear lower in News Feed.”

IFCN is hosted by the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. A cursory search of the Poynter Institute website finds that Poynter’s IFCN is openly funded by Soros’ Open Society Foundations as well as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google, and the National Endowment for Democracy.

So after over a decade on Facebook, and our unceremonious removal from their fascist platform, the fight continues unabated, and we invite you to join us. Come join the NTEB global family of Bible believers, and help us to send out King James Bibles around the world, for free, to anyone who needs one and can’t afford it. Help us to put up more Gospel Witness Billboards to warn lost sinners that Hell is real. Help us, for the fields are ‘white unto harvest’, the laborers are few, and the time is almost gone. We need you.. and the lost need you even more.

The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORTto the FIGHT!!!

Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church

When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. Even all the way to South Africa. We even restarted our weekly radio Bible study on Sunday nights again, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.

But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. If every one of the 15,860+ people on our daily mailing list gave $4.50, we would reach our goal immediately. If every one of our 150,000+ followers on Facebook gave $1.00 each, we would reach 300% of our goal. The same goes for our 15,900 followers on Twitter. But sadly, many will not give, so we need the ones who can and who will give to be generous. As generous as possible.

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJV)

“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB

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