Site's increased accessibility draws security concerns
By Anna Walters
For the past three years, Facebook has served college students as a way to keep in touch with high school classmates, connect with other students on campus, and remind users when their "friends'" birthdays roll around. But recently, Facebook's security practices have come under fire for allowing members to harass other users too easily.
Senior Amanda Sandau was affected by the security problems with the site.
"I met someone at a club in Canada, and they sought me out and sent me harassing messages because I didn't call them," Sandau said.
As a result, Sandau tightened the security controls of her Facebook account, allowing only those who she had designated as friends to view her profile. The harassment ceased, but Sandau still doesn't feel safe from other unwanted solicitations or harassment via her Facebook account.
"There's nothing I can do to stop people from sending me messages," she said.
The New York Attorney General subpoenaed Facebook officials last week for documents regarding the site's security procedures, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education.
The changes to the site during the past year, including the company's decision to broaden its user base from those with a valid college e-mail address to anyone who has Internet access, contributed to the Attorney General's alarm.
Because accounts are now being offered to users under 18 years old, the Attorney General's office is holding Facebook officials accountable for removing inappropriate content and blocking members who use the site as a way to harass other users.
Another security concern cited in The Chronicle was Facebook's September announcement that search engines like Google and Yahoo would be able to access any user's profile that was not designated as "private."
Jenny Walsh, director of Web Services at UP, hopes that students are aware of the harassment risks they run by posting a profile on Facebook or MySpace.
"Every student should worry about being stalked," Walsh said. "Not only do they have the potential of being stalked, but they also have the potential to defame themselves." Students also have no way of tracking who is looking at their profiles, she said.
Walsh said that the university doesn't offer any formal advice to new student Facebook users, nor does she think students would need it.
"The students of UP appear to be savvy enough that we haven't heard any complaints," she said.
Nonetheless, if students do create and manage a Facebook or MySpace profile, Walsh wants them to be safe.
"I definitely encourage every person who signs up for a Facebook or MySpace account to view it as a public forum and protect themselves in the same way they would protect themselves if they were walking downtown Portland at night," she said.
Walsh suggests that students arm themselves with knowledge of the site's security features and are aware of any policy changes that may affect security levels.
"Be an educated consumer," Walsh said. "Be aware of what these groups are doing."
She also recommends that students control the content of their postings, limiting the amount of personal information available to strangers to a minimum. She also cautions students against posting anything that they "couldn't tell their grandmother" because UP officials and potential employers peruse sites like Facebook and MySpace to find information about a student or an applicant, Walsh said.
Senior Amy VanderZanden posts very little personal information to her Facebook profile, a practice that was reinforced recently when she heard a news report of police officers shooting a man over the content of his profile.
"It's like a magical world where people don't think how severe the things they put up there can be taken," VanderZanden said. "It's too easy to take things out of context."
Some UP students, like senior Dane Conroy, feel comfortable with Facebook's current safety features and allow indiscriminate access to their profiles.
"I don't feel like people would use Facebook to confront me," Conroy said. "I think they would go about it in another way if they were looking to harm me."
Walsh thinks that Facebook must strike a balance between enforcing content, and user rules and serving as an uncensored community resource.
"It's such an open, community-based tool that principles of community apply," Walsh said. "If there is an individual who hurts other folks through the tool, they just hurt the entire community."
