Facebook Messenger App 86’ing Needing Facebook Account as Requirement - http://clapway.com/2015/06/24/facebook-messenger-app-86ing-needing-facebook-account-as-a-requirement988/

It is no secret, especially to Facebook and Facebook Messenger App users, that the latter app was only accessible for use as long as the person had an account, with the former.

Well, the good news is that this no longer applies. Starting today, the Facebook Messenger App no longer requires users to have a Facebook account in order to gain access.

Why the change in making Facebook Messenger App a standalone?

With the Facebook Messenger App becoming the go-to for touching bases, as opposed to e-mail and phone alongside WhatsApp Messenger, Facebook is attempting to up the ante by giving full access to everyone. This includes individuals who either are not familiar with Facebook, are not interested in signing up for Facebook, or deactivated their account. These circumstances may be at play for a wide range of people, but now it should not stop them from enjoying the messaging app as well. Vice president of Facebook’s messaging products’ David Marcus states regarding the ever-expansive opportunities and benefits, “We all have examples of people in our lives who are not on Facebook but would want to have the Messenger experience. It’s really important that we can serve those people and enable them to try out Messenger for themselves.” Marcus wants to make sure that everyone, Facebook user or not, gets a chance to have the Facebook Messenger experience, as well as benefit from it.

Facebook’s gain in making the Facebook Messenger App separate

By granting everyone access to the Facebook Messenger App, it will become even less restrictive, resulting in Facebook as a social media platform benefitting even more in terms of popularity and revenue. Right now, Facebook Messenger App is competing with other messaging app contenders who also want to reign within that market. As of now, nothing else is planned when it comes to Facebook’s next step in one-upping their competition. However, that does not mean that something else isn’t in store on their end. The Facebook Messenger App is thriving and then some independently, possibly even before the separation. Reports say that, “It’s now 700 million strong, neck-in-neck with WhatsApp, which Facebook bought for $22 billion in 2014.”

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Facebook Messenger App 86’ing Needing Facebook Account as Requirement

U.S.: Chrome Extension Map Can Track Your Location - http://clapway.com/2015/05/29/u-s-chrome-extension-map-can-track-your-location123/

If you use Facebook Messenger, you’d be aware that a new Google Chrome extension map can track your location via Facebook’s location sharing function. The app is called Marauders Map, after the map in the Harry Potter series that tracks people at Hogwarts. It was created by Harvard College computer science student Aran Khanna.

Marauders Map works by taking Facebook Messenger’s location data from its users and plotting the results on a map. Sharing location data on Facebook is a default setting, so unless a user has turned this feature off manually, it is available for you to track your position as you travel. In fact, this new Chrome extension map is said to be able to track your position within a meter of your location.

Marauders Map Can Track Your Location Accurately

The Marauders Map creator says that he wrote the apps code using latitude and longitude coordinates that had over five decimal places of precision, which means it can track your position extremely accurately as you travel. It has caused alarm since it could potentially allow a person to stalk someone and possibly predict their future travel as long as they had access to the message thread of the person they wanted to locate.

Marauders Map to be Disabled, API Key Revoked

Because of this new function, Mapbox has revoked its API key and it will likely soon be disabled so it can’t find people as they travel. However, Facebook Messenger users should still reset their privacy settings so that their location won’t be shared. Additionally, the source code for the Marauders Map was made available to Github, which means some other developer could modify and use it elsewhere to track your location in another form.

How to Disable Ability to Track Your Location on Facebook

It’s not hard to disable the ability for Facebook Messenger to track your location as you travel so you don’t have to worry about stalkers. Just go to “settings,” then “privacy,” and “location services.” A list of installed apps will be displayed so that can track your location. Just locate Facebook Messenger or any other app you want to disable and make sure it reads “never.”

U.S.: Chrome Extension Map Can Track Your Location