Ex-employee reveals Facebook's dark, sexist side

July 2, 2012

FB

New Delhi, July 2: Facebook developed an experimental feature called “Dark Profiles” which would give secret accounts to people who did not even sign up, a new book by a former employee of the social networking site has claimed.

Engineers wanted to create shadow pages for those who were tagged in photos by their friends in the hope they would cave-in and join the social networking website, Katherine Losse, the author of “The Boy Kings: A Journey into the Heart of the Social Network,” said.

Nobody at Facebook “even flinched” when staff raised this disturbing new twist as they were so blinded by their mission to take over the world.

The book also claimed that in 2007 Facebook technicians worked on a programme called “Judgebox,” which would let users compare and rate women in echoes of founder Mark Zuckerberg's sexist “Facemash” app he developed at Harvard.

It confirms for the first time that Facebook staff have a programme called “Facebook Stalker” which lets them track who has been visiting their profiles, the Daily Mail reported. And in the early days of the social networking website, employees were given the “master” password with no security checks at all and allowed to do as they pleased.

These claims have been made in the new book by Losse who worked for Facebook between 2005 and 2010 and worked her way up from customer relations to be the speechwriter for its founder Mark Zuckerberg.

She claimed that in autumn 2006 everyone at the company was “so convinced that Facebook was something that everyone should have that when the product team created an experimental feature called dark profiles in 2006, nobody even flinched.”

People can be tagged in Facebook photos even if they do not have a profile, and the idea was to create a “dark” version which could apparently be activated if they finally signed up. “It reminds me now of the way members of the Mormon church convert dead people, following the logic that if they had know about Mormonism when they were alive they would have been believers,” Losse wrote.

The claims come at a difficult time for Facebook, it recently sparked yet another backlash after being caught out trying to force its 900 million users to adopt its own email service. It was accused of “hijacking” users' contact details and deleting their personal email addresses without asking them.


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News Network
March 25,2020

Kolkata, Mar 25: Amid the countrywide lockdown in the wake of coronavirus outbreak, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said that all police stations will take responsibility to deliver food at doorsteps under the supervision of District Magistrates and Police Superintendents.
"As we have to ensure that there is no scarcity of food, all Police stations will take responsibility to deliver food at doorsteps and it will be monitored by District Magistrates and Police Superintendents," said Banerjee at a press conference here.
She also said that under the social pension schemes, the pension holders will get their pension of March and April together.
Speaking on local police blocking people involved in essential services, she said, "The Officer-in-charge will have to ensure that the local police know about the rules and exemptions during the lockdown."
"If any police official or an administrative official is found flouting the lockdown norms, then strict action will be taken against them," she added.
The Chief Minister also said, "If somebody needs to help us by giving materials then they need to contact health department official Sanjay Bansal, whose contact number is - 9051022000."
"The government has also launched a State emergency relief fund wherein people can donate. For donation, the account number is 628005501339, IFSC: ICIC0006280 and website: wb.gov.in," she said.
She also said that on March 31 the government will review the situation.
According to a recent update by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, a total of 562 positive cases for coronavirus have been confirmed in the country.

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Agencies
July 20,2020

Kolkata, Jul 20: As many as 13 migrant workers who came to their native village in West Bengal's Bankura district were denied entry at the quarantine centre by the locals.

As a result, the workers had to set up a tent accommodation at a nearby Beraban forest area and lived together in a single tent there, without adequate food, drinking water and basic facilities.

The migrant labourers came from Rajasthan after four months of COVID-19 lockdown which was imposed nationwide on March 25 to contain the spread of coronavirus.

When they arrived at Jagadalla village in the Bankura district and tried to put up at a village school building for two weeks self-quarantine, angry villagers vehemently protested against their entry fearing Covid infections in their village.

Sources said that local police and panchayat members also failed to make the villagers understand the fact that if the labourers strictly stayed in self-quarantine there would be no chance of any further infection.

"The school is located quite within our neighbourhood. If they stay there and tested positive, they might spread Covid infections in the village. We cannot allow them to stay in the school building," said Aniket Goswami, a villager.

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News Network
January 1,2020

Jan 1: Two army personnel were killed in a gunfight with heavily-armed Pakistani infiltrators along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district on Wednesday, officials said.

The infiltrators were intercepted in the Khari Thrayat forest when they were trying to sneak into India from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), they said.

"Two army soldiers martyred during cordon and search operation in Nowshera sector. The operation is still in progress and further details are awaited," Jammu-based Indian Army Public Relations Officer (PRO) Lt Col Devender Anand said in a statement.

The search operation was launched following information about the movement of suspected terrorists, the officials said.

The infiltrators opened fire on the troops and during a fierce gunfight, the two soldiers were killed, they said.

The officials said a massive operation is on in the area.

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