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Facebook Messenger App - movement tracking


whitewind

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http://rt.com/news/263189-facebook-messenger-location-data/

'Marauders Map': App exposes ease of tracking Facebook Messenger users

If you value privacy, you may want to think twice before using Facebook Messenger. A new extension for Chrome has revealed just how much location data is shared through the app – and it's enough to track someone down with almost perfect accuracy.

The extension - called the 'Marauder's Map,' after the magical map in Harry Potter – pinpoints the locations of a person's Facebook friends. It allows a person to track their movements, learning about their routines and weekly schedules.

Though some may view the information as useful, others think it is downright creepy, as it hands over a person's movements on a silver platter to any potential stalkers.

Khanna developed the extension after noticing that Facebook Messenger locations had more than five decimal points of precision – meaning the sender's location was pinpointed within three feet (one meter) of accuracy.

By testing his map on a group of Facebook friends who posted on chat at least once a day, Khanna realized he could see where one of them lived – even down to the exact location of his dorm room.

After chatting frequently to one friend, he discovered he could track the friend's hourly movements. The person's location history was mapped out at the end of the day.

Taking it up another notch, Khanna realized he could do the same thing for those who weren't his friends on Facebook. For example, he could track the locations of people taking part in a large group message, which was created to organize poker games.

Indeed.

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Facebook is all about data mining.

it collects an insane amount of data about you and your "friends" in order to data mine for social dynamics.

its interesting that some of this info is accessible to the public though, im guessing in the mad dash to grab data they forgot to lock down some of the "features"

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