No, I’m not asking you personally, but I’m sure that many of you have been asked this exact question on more than one occasion within the past year. Facebook, the social networking website targeted at a high-school and post-secondary audience, has gained major momentum in popularity over the course of just one year. Membership skyrocketed from just thousands in 2006 to an estimated 3.85 million in 2007 – meaning over 85% of college students now utilize Facebook in some way or another (www.techcrunch.com). Just recently, however, much speculation has been raised regarding Facebook’s Privacy Policy, and the implications it has over its users. Campuses from all over North America are abuzz due to several controversial issues that have ensued regarding the safety and privacy that one may relinquish while signing up for a Facebook account. With the ubiquity of social networks like MySpace, Xanga, Hi5, and Facebook, people have become comfortable (and even apathetic) with the information they give out over the Internet. Sometimes one has to sit back and wonder – is it worth the risk?

“Risk to what?” You may ask. Well, this past September, Facebook introduced an automatic feature to their program called, “News Feed”. The News Feed allows everyone on your “Friends” list to see the changes, updates, and pretty much every little move you make, on Facebook. Since September, Facebook membership has not slowed down, however, over 700,000 members have united under the “Students Against Facebook News Feed” Group. Among other encumbrances, this voyeuristic feature (if you will) is said to encourage stalking. It’s true that as a member, one chooses who is a “Friend”, however, not all “friends” are always friends. Plus, when becoming members of the same network, it allows anyone in that network to view your profile. Privacy then becomes an issue, because there are ways around accessing certain profiles.

Stalking is not a new issue when it comes to social networking websites. MySpace is notorious for attracting stalkers. A large majority of MySpace users are underage high school students, and concerns with pedophilia stalking is still an ongoing issue. With Facebook’s News Feed feature, similar concerns have been raised. The good news is that Facebook is implementing an “opt-out” feature to the News Feed feature, which may (temporarily at least) unruffled some feathers.

A major point of scrutiny right now is the violation of privacy that one University of Miami student experienced due to copyright infringement. The campus newspaper, the Miami Hurricane, ran an article using photos and captions from a student’s Facebook photo album of some students who went swimming in a nearby lake – an activity that is forbidden by the school. Even though Facebook demanded that the publication pull the story, their privacy policy tells a different story:

“no personal information that you submit to Facebook will be available to any user of the website who does not belong to at least one of the groups specified by you in your privacy settings.” According to the Facebook website, “Content may not be modified, copied, distributed, framed, reproduced, republished, downloaded, displayed, posted, transmitted, or sold in any form or by any means, in whole or in part, without website’s prior written permission” (http://snews.southernct.edu).

The newspaper claims that the “the story’s importance outweighed any other risks because we thought it was newsworthy and it was a matter of public safety” (http://snews.southernct.edu). This is disturbing on many, many levels. What excuse will a publication have when it comes to publishing pictures and stories from your crazy night out?

This goes hand-in-hand with the somewhat disturbing realization that employers, criminal authority organizations, and even the government, are using networking sites like Facebook to track down prospects and people of concern. Albumoftheday.com presents a video clip demonstrating the ties that Facebook has to the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) and the United States government. The video reveals the network of authority figures, which tie directly to the US government. Peter Field, former CEO of Paypal, helped fund the start-up of Facebook with $500,000. A subsequent round of financing for Facebook came from ACCEL Venture Capital for $12,700,000. Filtering downward, ACCEL Venture Capital was established in part by the CIA. Within the network of Venture Capital financing for Facebook, ties to the Department of Defense and Information Awareness Office (IAO) exist as well. Shockingly, the IAO’s mission is to in part, “gather information about everyone in one centralized location [for easy perusal] by the United States Government” (www.albumoftheday.com). I suggest to visit the given website to view the entire video.

This is surely just the beginning of the downfall (or de-popularization, at least) of social networking websites. It’s a creepy feeling knowing that anyone can find out who you are, at any time. It’s an inherent fact that networking sites are centered around the accumulation of listed “friends”, which ultimately serves as a major ego-stroke. Is exposing yourself and your life online worth it? Are you unknowingly playing as a pawn in a huge marketing ploy, or government scheme? We’ll soon find out. In the meantime, monitor the addiction.