Remember the days when only Ivy League students had Facebook, wall posts were all one long, rambling entry and there were no photo albums?
Those days are long gone. Thanks to the recent addition of the news feed and mini-feed features to Facebook, you can find out everything from whether or not your economics class crush is suddenly single to when one of your elementary school classmates joins and leaves the Will Ferrell Appreciation Club three times in 15 minutes.
The thing is, not everyone loved this new feature. Groups popped up overnight protesting the news feed, and the nationwide protest (created, ironically, using Facebook) gained national media attention. Some protested the alleged privacy invasion, others claimed they simply didn't care if their next door neighbor added "An Inconvenient Truth" to her favorite movies. It's a somewhat sad observation that it takes politicians hundred of thousands of dollars and many months to mobilize college-aged Americans during election season, often with mixed results; yet all it takes is one adjustment to their social networking Web site of choice for all hell to break loose.
One key element is being overlooked in this whole debate, though. All the information on news feed was already there! The only thing news feed did was take away the 45 minutes one would spend combing through recently updated profiles. Students opposing the new features have lamented that now their privacy is being violated, when in fact the decision to post personal information anywhere on the Internet, Facebook or elsewhere, is a voluntary violation of privacy. Facebook did not become more stalker-friendly overnight. Now it just saves stalkers the effort of combing through profiles.
Another Facebook privacy issue has been overshadowed by the news feed fiasco: the fact that unless students specifically adjust their privacy settings, Facebook will share their information with third parties according to Facebook's Terms of Service. (You can change this by clicking on the "My Privacy" tab on the left, clicking "edit settings" under "Everyone" and then unchecking the box at the bottom of the page.)
Furthermore, students should be aware that just because one needs a .edu e-mail address to create a Facebook profile, that doesn't mean the Facebook is any more secure than Myspace, Friendster or any other Web site. Just because your fellow Facebook users are people that live in your dorm, sit next to you in class and run into you at TDR or the library doesn't mean they've automatically been screened for your safety.
As a general rule, refrain from posting your phone number, address or dorm room number on the Facebook. And if you do, don't complain about things like the new Facebook news feed.
