Look, the Facebook Team is very clever.
In February 2004, a couple of Harvard undergrads took an idea for connecting college campuses, launched a site and watched as business immediately boomed.
Despite their foresight, the success has brought unwanted attention. On Sept. 26, The Boston Globe ran a metro front story revealing Facebook profiles, previously widely believed by students to be public only to their peers, were actually viewable by both administrators and possibly even potential or current employers.
Many students scrambled to change the photos of them smiling with a bong in hand or guzzling from a beer ball. So why, after coming under fire for the representations of a single profile photo, would the Facebook Team make their biggest mistake yet: launching a photo hosting feature students can’t individually control? Talk about bad timing and an even worse idea.
My Facebook profile picture is nothing alarming, just an innocent shot of me holding my forehead in disbelief while watching some friends perform karate moves. There is absolutely nothing offensive about it, unless you count my questionable choice of a relatively tight shirt stretched over my “curvaceous” body. However, beneath that photo there’s a new option that appeared on my profile in the last couple of weeks: View More Photos of Glenn (1). While I uploaded the aforementioned karate photo, I did not authorize that extra photo to be posted. Nor was I notified. It was uploaded by an old pal, yet it still appears on my profile as well as his Facebook album. And while it is also a harmless picture (just a photo of me from freshman year, looking 14 years old), just imagine the legal ramifications if it weren’t. And consider how angry I’d be at my friend if I found myself in hot water over a picture I never gave the OK to be posted.
While there are no photos of me posted that could be damaging, the possibility theoretically exists: Let’s say my Facebook-savvy roommate posts a picture of me partaking in some illegal activities (keep in mind this is strictly hypothetical). Without me being notified, that picture is now on my profile, identifies me by name in the caption and circles me in the picture to boot. And I have no say whether it’s posted or not. All I can say to my roommate is “Would you please take that down?” He doesn’t have to do anything about it.
Next thing I know, my position as a student leader is being threatened by the university because the wrong eyes caught sight of my newly-public image and didn’t find it befitting a student leader. The administrators would be completely justified in doing so. Obviously, student leaders are held to an elevated set of rules, but all students need to mind their public image and realize there are ramifications. (For the record, I maintain a relatively squeaky-clean image, thus this being hypothetical.)
While my approach to any Internet site is to not post anything I wouldn’t want Mom or Dad to see, I can’t completely control that now, can I? Now, I have little to no say over a major facet of my public profile. What if someone flat-out dislikes you and posts a compromising photo as a result? It could happen. Easily.
In fairness, you can click the “Remove Tag” option so the photo is stripped of your name and doesn’t link directly to your profile, which solves a part of the problem, although the photo would still be posted to an online album. You can also “Report This Photo,” which would most likely just get the picture taken down. But in a worse case scenario, it could be turned over to an authority and in turn get you in trouble, so that’s enigmatic and not a viable option.
Yes, students often post many pictures to any number of other public profiles, including weblogs and private journals. However, those are fundamentally different because unlike the Facebook, a weblog is not directly tied to your status as a student at a particular institution. But there’s still a chance the wrong person could see it, as we now find is the case with the Facebook, and you’d find yourself in a heap of trouble.
We must be aware that everything we post on the Internet is public – even those seemingly private journals and weblogs. Even if you never put your name on your Xanga or LiveJournal, there are still ways to figure out it’s you (e-mail address, AIM screenname, context clues, etc.). Therefore, we must also be courteous of others and their right to privacy. Check with the pictured parties before posting any shot of them. Realize that it’s possible they are going to feel the effects of that photo – even if the photo isn’t that person doing something illegal, it may be an embarrassing picture the person doesn’t want to be mass viewed.
Just play it safe and ask first.
While I don’t understand the Facebook Team’s timing on releasing this photo hosting option, I can guess that it will still be an immensely popular feature. And for the most part, it will be used correctly. But they are treading in dangerous water and jeopardizing many a student whose friends may or may not practice discretion when uploading photos. Until we can OK something before it’s made public, just be careful. More people are watching than we know.
– Glenn Yoder is a middler journalism major and a member of The News staff.
