Privacy concerns grow over access to Facebook sites
By Natasha Lindstrom
Correction Appended
Every day, more than 4,000 Santa Clara students spend an average of 18 minutes logged on to Facebook.com, messaging friends or browsing photos from the latest parties.
What they may not realize is that they're not just in the company of friends -- but also future employers and university administrators.
Facebook serves as an online social network, where users create profiles that include photo albums and personal information.
Today, Facebook stands as the seventh most heavily-trafficked site online, one step behind Google.com.
A rapidly spreading college cultural phenomenon nationwide, Facebook has grown to include 12.4 million registered users from more than 2,500 colleges around the world since three Harvard University students launched the site in February 2004.
But through alumni and borrowed e-mail addresses, users can register a Facebook account to screen future job applicants, investigate on- and off-campus crime and gather personal information.
Those issues were so important that last Thursday, some administrators hosted a forum on this growing phenomenon, describing how students sometimes overlook privacy implications and threats to personal safety.
Potential problems with Facebook don't just apply to Santa Clara. In late September, two students were expelled from Fisher College in Boston for creating a Facebook group targeting a university police officer. The students expelled insisted the group was only a joke.
Among other national incidents:
* In October, officials at North Carolina State University used Facebook photographs to cite nine students for underage drinking, according to cnetnews.com.
* Earlier this month, The Phoenix reported that a new athletic policy at Loyola University in Chicago requires that all student-athletes delete their profiles altogether.
Vice Provost for Student Life Jeanne Rosenberger said that university administration is not about to limit or restrict students' use of Facebook at Santa Clara, but that officials do want to make students aware of certain Facebook-related issues.
"I think there's an undisputable value to Facebook," Rosenberger said. "Everything I hear from students is how great it is. It's these isolated incidents that you hear a lot about or read a lot about -- they cause you moments of pause."
Santa Clara's policy
The Office of Student Life reports that there have been no specific Facebook-related disciplinary cases to date. But Associate Dean for Student Life Matthew Duncan warns that material on Facebook profiles is fair game for disciplinary action.
"It's all situational. It's not to say that we wouldn't use Facebook," Duncan said. "But there isn't somebody at the university just spending their time on Facebook, looking for violations of the conduct code."
According to Duncan, students may be held accountable for any actions -- on- or off-campus -- that violate the Student Conduct Code while they are a student at the university.
Because the university is a private institution, being enrolled constitutes an agreement to abide by the school's private restrictions and policies.
"When you're a student here, you're a representative of the university, and we have a vested interest in how our students, how our Santa Clara University community members, behave," Duncan said. "Reputation comes from current and past members of the community -- students, faculty and staff."
Duncan, personally familiar with Facebook and the average student profile, said the material that students post often baffles him.
"The photographs, the banter -- the way that students talk on there, I suspect they would not do in an e-mail to faculty, staff or parents, and to use it (that way) raises the question of what does it say about the individual?" Duncan said.
"When you post something like that, whether you like it or not, you're saying, 'This is who I am, judge me based on this information,' " Duncan added.
While Campus Safety has yet to use Facebook as an investigative tool, they are concerned that users' personal safety is in danger.
"At this point what we know is that students are putting themselves at risk on Facebook and MySpace," Assistant Director Phil Beltran said.
Privacy concerns
Rosenberger said that she thinks most students use Facebook responsibly, "but certainly not thinking Big Brother is watching."
Freshman Grace Nixon agreed.
"There's something about being in college that some people throw all caution to the wind. You just get caught up in the social scene, and you're not thinking further down the road because you're so caught up in the experience," Nixon said.
Rosenberger said she personally does not see Facebook being used for disciplinary action any time soon. "We protect students' rights to privacy, and I'm in the mind that there's some sense of what students put on (Facebook) that should stay private."
While university officials report the Facebook.com domain has not been specifically targeted, some students report that personal Web sites have led to contact by university authorities due to violations of the Student Conduct Code.
Last year, Michael Maxwell, who was a community facilitator and a graduate from the class of 2005, was contacted by his university supervisor after photos were posted online.
The photos were posted on a Web site he created with a few friends, dunne5forlife.com, and included him holding two empty alcohol bottles upside down in a residence hall.
Maxwell was instructed to remove the photos but received no official repercussions.
Other personal Web sites have been censored. Earlier this year, the ultimate frisbee team's personal Web site went under self-initiated editing and a temporary shutdown, said senior Tim Morris, ultimate frisbee team member and Web site contributor.
Frisbee team members reconsidered what was posted after receiving complaints from parents, who called photographs inappropriate and incriminating.
Morris said students both have a right to portray themselves and others online, as long as they agree to it.
"But they have to understand that some of the stuff they put on there, if it's an illegal action, then they're leaving themselves openly exposed to the possibility of getting caught," he said.
Potential job screening
Concerns about inappropriate material posted online extend beyond disciplinary consequences. For some, a Facebook profile may play a factor in landing a job.
Tim Haskell, director of first-year programs, openly informs all potential Orientation Leaders that personal sites, including Facebook, will be screened in the application process.
In December, the Career Center held a staff meeting to discuss the news that professional employers had been reviewing Facebook profiles of potential job candidates and the importance of spreading student awareness.
While Facebook access is intended for students, employers can potentially access Facebook through alumni employees with .edu accounts. This causes some students to self-censor.
Nixon, a self-proclaimed "Facebook addict," said choosing to actively monitor her profile was a natural tendency. Nixon refuses to join groups with profanity in their titles and deletes inappropriate "wall postings" from her profile.
"I still think I'm able to have a lot of fun with it and use it as a nice tool, but at the same time I think I'm able to keep the balance where it's not going to hurt me in the future," Nixon said.
Career Center Director Kathy Potter said that she has no first-hand knowledge of professional employers using Facebook to screen applicants, but she has heard about it through word-of-mouth. She added that if the employers did use Facebook, they would not likely want such a method made public.
"They don't want people to know that they make decisions based on a thing like (Facebook) because they don't want to be accused of discrimination," Potter said, adding that online material is fair game for employers.
National studies have suggested the same. About 75 percent of recruiters admitted to using online search engines to find information about applicants, and 26 percent said they eliminated candidates because of what they found online, a 2005 survey of 102 executive recruiters by ExecuNet found.
"I think people in college are old enough to make choices for themselves, but you need to make informed choices," said Career Center Assistant Director Susan Rockwell. "Something that they do freshman year might come back to be a front and center issue when they're a junior seeking an internship."
Potter offers students some simple advice.
"Use some wisdom," she said. "Be selective to the extent that you consider that people other than students are seeing this."
Heeding warnings
While sophomore Katie Mahaffy monitors what she puts on her Facebook profile, she said that the university should not seek to punish students for minor matters made public though Facebook.
"There has to be a line drawn as to our rights as students," Mahaffy said.
"And it's not even a reliable source of information. I could say I get drunk every night, but it's not reliable. When do you draw the line? Can (university officials) write me up if they walk into my dorm room and there's a picture of me drinking on the wall?"
According to Duncan, the answer is yes.
"If something is brought to our attention, and it's obvious this took place at a time when the student is responsible to the conduct code, and there's sufficient reason to believe the student has violated the conduct code, then there's reason to act on it," Duncan said.
Facebook spokesman Chris Hughes advises students seeking to keep their profiles private to select the "Friends Only" option under their preferences of who can view their profiles. Otherwise, any user with an .edu address has access.
Correction: The story referred to a Web site partially run by former student Michael Maxwell. The story stated that he was not disciplined by housing officials for content on the site, but, in fact, he was. Also, the story implied Maxwell was interviewed by a reporter, but he was not.