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As I was doing my Econ homework today, as usual, I ended up on Facebook. I went through the normal routine of checking my notifications, events, messages, etc. Then, when I was done with that, I looked at my mini-feed to see what all my friends were up to. I’ve always liked that aspect of Facebook. Being able to see what people are doing allows me to feel connected and up-to-date with everyone else, while at the same time, avoiding awkward conversations with people I wouldn’t normally talk to. And yes, I have to admit, I am guilty of the occasional Facebook stalking. But aren’t we all?

As I was doing this, I thought back our first class period when we all chose between phone conversations, texting, e-mail, and Facebook as our favorite form of communication. I chose Facebook because of its ease and community aspect, while others disliked Facebook because of its lack of privacy. This made me think about how much you can really find out about a person from Facebook. By looking at one of my friend’s page, I could find out where he was right now (from his status), his phone number, school, class schedule, address, birthday, sexual orientation, religion, political views, who his girlfriend is, what he looks like (from all of the posted pictures), who his friends are, and who he’d been talking to recently. Wow, that’s definitely enough information to seriously stalk someone, not just Facebook stalk.

None of this ever really bothered me though, because I have the option of choosing who has access to all of this information. Right?

I just read an article about how Facebook has decided to go back to its original terms of use. I wasn’t even aware that they had changed it! But, apparently in the new terms of use, Facebook granted itself permanent rights to user’s photos, wall posts, and info even if the account was closed! Thankfully, Facebook changed it back in response to public pressure, including various Facebook groups that came out against it. However, the fact that I was giving someone else permanent rights over my pictures and personal information without even realizing it, made me think twice about safety on the internet. I’m not worried enough to delete my Facebook account and lose my favorite social connection, but in the future, I will try to be more careful about reading the fine print.