Harvard student loses Facebook internship after pointing out privacy flaws
boston.com
boston.com
Facebook and Zuckerberg honestly are a good example of "Do as I say not as I do".
Facebook doesn't track your location constantly so you can know where your wife or sister is when you message them - they track you so they can serve you ads.
It's good to hear that he got a job somewhere else, but honestly I would question the morals/ethics/human decency/whatever you want to call it, of anyone that would go to work for Facebook, given how user-hostile the company is when it comes to privacy.
However there are numerous cases where people have been caught out because Facebook was sharing information they expected to be private or limited to their friends.
Yes there is an aspect of personal responsibility here, but there is also a strong aspect of basic human decency which is pretty much at odds with Facebook's business model.
Good companies don't ask "what information can we get from users and how can we make money from it?"
Good companies ask "what is the minimum amount of information we can collect to provide our product/service. OK, are we sure we need that much? How do we protect that information?"
Really? They're not even trying at Facebook anymore. Terms mean jack shit to a malicious attacker, which is exactly who would exploit such appalling code.
Actually, the moral of the story, as I see it, is these days you can upset whoever you want as long as you are a good engineer. He got another job; probably less boring than a random internship offered to hundreds of people. Do the right thing.[1]
Also, "probably?" We have no idea. It sounds like you're just trying to justify the intern's actions.
How did you arrive at that conclusion? Losing an internship at Facebook isn't exactly the end of the world.
> Being right doesn't matter.
It does to some people, some of the time. Jobs come and go, and you can't always control that. But you can control your own principles, integrity and dignity.