New Chrome extension can pinpoint your Facebook Messenger locations

Stalkers are likely in for a treat as a new app is going to help them creep up on their Facebook friends. As if Google wasn’t enough. A new Google Chrome extension called Marauders Map, inspired by the map in the Harry Potter franchise, will allow users to see exactly from where their contacts are messaging them, without their permission or consent. Created by a student developer in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Aran Khanna, the extension will grab a user’s location data from Facebook Messenger and will quickly plot it out on a map. The location is said to be extremely precise and makes it super easy to stalk a person’s vicinity. To make things more easy, it can fetch location data from the past as well as long as location sharing was enabled, which is mostly on by default on iOS and Android apps. [caption id=“attachment_268689” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Image: Google Chrome Store[/caption]   Aran Khanna mentioned in a blog post on  Medium, “Everyone I have shown this extension to has been anywhere from surprised to appalled that this much of their very personal data is online for their friends (and even complete strangers) to access.” A report by Engadget points out that this is not real-time tracking method by any means. The extension simply compiles the embedded data into a cohesive map. If users find the whole idea of being stalked on Facebook Messenger too creepy for their taste, they can opt out from the feature by turning off the GPS location service and disable it in their smartphone’s settings as well.