As if students were not already worried about their privacy - or lack thereof - on the social networking site Facebook.com, a subtle new change in the site's infrastructure has raised concerns among users.
The site, which allows students to post information about themselves and photos, complete with digital nametags, of whoever they would like on their personal profile, has never lent itself to secrecy. But while it previously only allowed registered users to search on the Facebook.com database, the site announced Sept. 5 that it would begin allowing profiles to be searched in public search engines like Google or Yahoo.
Known as "limited public search listings," Facebook explained that the new feature was enacted to make all profiles not listed as "private" available to non-users.
The company's blog explained that the new search would only return names and thumbnail photos by default, and could be blocked altogether at the user's discretion.
The move has nonetheless led to some concern from users over privacy. Along with safety issues and stalking, the new features could pose problems for students whose revealing profiles might now be open for public view.
Since the change sets public profiles as searchable by default, users who have not heard of the change may be unpleasantly surprised.
Director of the Communications and Media Studies Department Julie Dobrow warned of the social consequences of social networking sites.
"A lot of people believe that what they put on Facebook is ephemeral, or something they do and relate to in the moment," she said. "Like most technologies, there's always going to be 'early adopters' who figure out how to be more savvy or smarter about it. But there are a lot of unfortunate and unforeseen social consequences behind it - which perhaps you can't postulate now - that could carry out beyond your time in high school or college."
In light of the new search features, some Tufts students, like senior Daniel Scarvalone, have taken steps to prevent themselves from becoming the target of such consequences.
"I changed around my preferences so that only I can see my photos, in the case that, say, prospective employers have access to my profile," he said.
Yet other students feel that any issues raised with respect to Facebook behavior began long before it changed its search and privacy features.
"I personally don't have anything that I feel distressed about in my profile, but I think that once Facebook opened to the public, that's when this kind of concern arose," senior Jessie Levit-Shore said.
Dobrow said that the site's privacy issues are indicative of the concerns tied to any current technology of the day.
"It's hard to predict what's going to happen, but if you look at the history of technologies and their adoptions, a lot of the same issues come up again and again," she said. "For example, when comic books became big in the 1930s, people began to raise issues over the images depicted in them. These are the same concerns we heard with radio, TV and now the Internet."
Associate Professor of Computer Science Anselm Blumer believes that in response to users' concerns, the site and its engineers should further emphasize its varying levels of privacy.
"If the old policy said a profile wasn't searchable by public search engines, than this change shouldn't be made without a user's consent," he said. "It seems to me that the right thing for Facebook to do would be to allow people to specify one of three levels: 'public,' meaning a profile can be searched by Google [and other search engines], 'no public searches,' meaning a profile can be searched only within Facebook, and its current 'private' status."
Blumer said the key is communicating the change to users.
"In terms of ethics, as long as they make it clear to users what their options are and make the default setting 'private,' this should be okay."
Though ultimately users have control over who can see their profiles, the change is still unnerving for some.
"I think it would be creepy if my parents found me on Facebook through a public search," junior Stephanie Kyc said.
