When Pennsylvania State University (PSU) defeated archrival Ohio State University (OSU) this past October, the post-game riot was so chaotic that campus police were unable to make more than two arrests. Not long thereafter, however, PSU's Assistant Director of Police Tyrone Parham was alerted to a Facebook group whose title, "I Rushed the Field After the OSU Game (And Lived!)," and accompanying photos provided sufficient grounds to indict several more students.
PSU's was not an isolated incident. Nate Anderson of PC enthusiast site arstechnica.com reports that, "Administrators now commonly turn to Facebook and call students in when they see evidence of illegal or improper activity, such as underage drinking or drug use." A similar trend also surfaced whereby employers use their college alumni e-mail address to gain Facebook access to investigate prospective employees graduating from their alma mater. "If a recruiter were to see a picture of the applicant pole-dancing in a cowgirl outfit," writes Anderson, "it does not require a great leap of imagination to understand that such a person might not be hired." The site's detailed profiles have also allegedly led to on-campus sexual harassment and stalking.
No similar incidents are known to have occurred at the College. "I'd be very surprised if we did anything like that," said Dean of Students Ben Lieber. "The closest I've come is the occasional glance at the Daily Jolt, and that's more for my own amusement than anything else."
As for information obtained through the Internet for use in admissions processes, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Tom Parker was likewise skeptical. "If I ever thought of doing it," said Parker, "I would definitely feel compelled to confer with the college's attorney. Students have a right to privacy circa the Family Educational Rights to Privacy Act. I would say that any schools which are doing that would be very well advised to consult with an attorney."
Still, if administrators at the College were to be tipped off like Parham-it is worth noting that PSU officers did not actually troll Facebook for potentially illicit activity-one could hardly expect them to sit on the evidence. "When you're talking about criminal activity what we would do is turn that over to the campus police for information," said Lieber. "If in fact it's material that doesn't require a subpoena to gain access to and if the campus police were able to gain access to it, there are laws that apply to that and we would apply the law."
Since the Facebook is ostensibly restricted to use by students and faculty members, users' inhibitions are predictably loosened. Students may freely view only the profiles of members of their own school, with access to the profiles of other students enabled only by reciprocal "friendships," and unwanted visitors may be manually blocked. Still, access to Facebook profiles is easily obtained. "Presumably even people like employers have means to access this material in other ways," said Lieber. "I certainly don't see how you can expect to keep something like this secret when posting."
"Facebook magnifies the dangers of posting personal information," observed Daily Jolt Webmaster Laura Strickman '07. "Because everything a student writes is linked to her photo and full name. And even if you're careful to keep from posting incriminating photos of yourself, you may not be safe: Facebook allows other users to post photos of you," she added. "You can request that your name be removed from a photo's label, but that only helps if you regularly search your own name and check to see if those shots of you doing the keg stand happened to find their way into somebody else's album."
Even beyond the specter of privacy issues, however, the very fact of the Facebook's overwhelming popularity has alarmed many colleges. Some schools have even gone so far as to block Facebook. Citing the possibility of security breaches, the University of New Mexico banned access to the site from its computers last summer. "Amherst has not entertained such a block," said Director of Systems, Network and Telecommunications John Manly. "and I would personally be surprised were we to do so."
More broadly, the rise of privacy concerns regarding Facebook highlights the internet as a tool aimed at extracting an individual's personal information. Facebook naturally pales in comparison to sites like google.com.
While such caveats may seem like old news, few would likely surmise the true extent to which their personal information may be thusly disseminated by relevant authorities. In fact, a 2005 survey by ExecuNet, a job-search and networking organization, reports that 75 percent of recruiters use search engines to uncover information about candidates, and that 26 percent of recruiters have eliminated candidates because of such findings.
In any case, students and faculty members alike agreed that prudence in one's online dealings is simply common sense. "It's really up to us to be careful in revealing details about ourselves on a Web site that allows almost anyone in the country with a college e-mail account to find and read about us," said Evelyn Auyeung '09. "Obviously when you only need to type a name into the search engine to find another person, you understand that you're out there for a lot of people to see."
As unorthodox as the approach of PSU police officers may have been, few would venture to say that the school violated any legitimate right to privacy. "I would say that students ought to be sophisticated enough to realize that its accessible to all kinds of people," said Lieber. "I don't think that's a moral issue, I think it's a practical one."