Facebook Users Not Liking Facelift
Save Email Print
Updated: 12:02 AM Sep 8, 2006
Facebook Users Not Liking Facelift
New Newsfeed has Facebook users in an uproar.
Posted: 11:53 PM Sep 7, 2006
width:200 and height: 120 and picwidth: 200 and pciheight: 120
Font Size:

Facebook is trying to save face. It's the popular social networking website for college students. Thousands of students are emailing the company, angry over a new feature the site's designers created to help users keep track of their friends.
Students say they feel it's crossing the line though, making personal information public knowledge.

The way to meet people on campus is changing according to UW-Eau Claire student Jordan Thomas. "Typically you meet someone in a class or at a party and if you can remember their name you can look it up on Facebook and add them and then get more details about them, message them." Now you don't even need to meet face to face to make a friend.

Thomas is a sophomore at UW-Eau Claire and a frequent Facebook user. He and more than nine million students use the site to connect with friends, meet new people and share photos, but a new tool the site's designers hoped would help users keep track of their friends, has Thomas concerned. "I think it's a little too much detail for people to know where you visited, who you've talked to and pictures you've added or tagged and it's a little too intrusive for anybody to see."

It's called the Newsfeed and it's designed to track users actions on the site and post those developments. Eau Claire Police Officer Jack Corey says the newsfeed may cause students to lose control of their personal information creating a security risk. "They need to be able to know who they're talking to, if there is something that is being reviewed by other people that they have access too, if they are entering the realm of public information, they might want to think twice about that."

Corey's message is hitting home with students who say they expect privacy. Hundreds of thousands of students who use Facebook started an online protest, but Facebook has not pulled the newsfeed.

WEAU 13 News poll
How do you feel about Oprah ending her talk show after next season?

Sad
Happy
Don't care either way