epinions

Facebook app exposes user information to search engines

Nicholas Carlson · 11/15/07 11:59AM

Microsoft paid $240 million for less than 2 percent of Facebook, but Google's getting a peak behind the curtain for free. According to reports, there's a vulnerability in the Facebook application Compare People, made by a company called Chainn. The app allows a search engine such as Google to rifle through the information of any users who have the app installed on their profile. That's about 10 million Facebook members, according to numbers from AllFacebook. What kind of user information is available?

Nirav Tolia goes to Benchmark

Owen Thomas · 08/29/07 10:11PM

The rehabilitation of Nirav Tolia is not just complete — it is, at long last, confirmed. The cofounder of Epinions, though tarred by old controversies, will announce tomorrow morning that he has, indeed, landed a long-rumored spot at Benchmark Capital as an entrepreneur-in-residence. (Back in March, Valleywag emeritus Nick Denton was told by several people Tolia was heading to Benchmark.) He'll be joined there by Sarah Leary, a former Epinions executive, and both hope to look at startup ideas having to do with online community and user-generated content. (We'll hold our tongue.) Tolia called Valleywag to share the news.