Facebook, a popular social networking website started in 2004, has made the decision to open up its member profiles to public. Member profiles and photographs will now be available to non-members also. The profiles will also be accessible to the general public via search engines such as Google and Yahoo, and MSN live in a few weeks.
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Facebook, launched on 4 February 2004, and headquartered at Palo Alto, California, was started as a social networking website with membership restricted to Harvard University. Founder and current CEO of the website Mark Zuckerberg started the website as a Harvard college student. With about 39 million users, the site accounts for 1 percent of the internet traffic.
The most recent move by Facebook to increase accessibility of member profiles for non-members as well implies that non-members will be able to search for friends through the utilization of a public search feature made available on Facebook’s homepage.
According to Facebook engineer, Philip Fung, the changes are minimal. He states in the Facebook blog, “We're expanding search so that people can see which of their friends are on Facebook more easily. The public search listing contains less information than someone could find right after signing up anyway, so we're not exposing any new information, and you have complete control over your public search listing.”
Users who do not want to opt for public user settings have the option of doing so by changing their privacy settings. Profiles will appear in external searches if the member’s search settings are set to “everyone”. Members have given a time-period of one month to make the necessary changes.
According to Philip Fung, “We think this will help more people connect and find value from Facebook without exposing any actual profile information or data.”
The public search feature will allow a peak at a thumbnail from the member’s profile as well as links for further interaction.
Though non-registered members will be able to search profiles, to add him/her as a friend, the non-member would have to register himself with the website. Thus, Facebook maintains, the move is driven by pure profit motives, and must be viewed as a strategy to increase membership.
The move has triggered off a series of debates and speculation. People all over the internet-members and non-members alike-are voicing concerns over a major breach of privacy. The move may facilitate the wrongful usage of information that is being disclosed.
According to Om Malik, publisher of GigaOm.com, a San Francisco based technology news site and weblog, privacy has one of the best features of Facebook. With this decision, Facebook risks making its users unhappy with the site. "You could be assured that what was in Facebook remained in Facebook," Malik said in his blog.
"However, that illusion might be ending soon. Once users' profiles are available on search engines, Facebook will become a quasi-White Pages of the Web, rather than a social networking site. Every time a non-Facebook user finds someone on Facebook after a 'search,' they might feel compelled to sign up and get more information. It is a virtuous cycle, meant to attract more people to the Facebook network”, he adds.
The move might lead to an erosion of member’s privacy and trust. Members are worried that Facebook might soon become as unsecure and open as MySpace, another social networking website that has witnessed a host of problems due to lack of measures which ensure privacy.
Last year, Facebook members were angry with the website when a ‘news feed’ feature was introduced. The feature informed everybody on a member’s contact list about the changes made by the member on his profile.
Also, the data trails left behind by members may be used for largely unsolicited marketing offers, thus forming another valid concern for members. For e.g. a birth date made public may be an important means of knowing whether you are a bank customer or not.
According to Keith Reed, online manager for web security firm Trend Micro, the move could portend the possibility of fraud cases. He adds, "Social networking sites should be a source of fun, not worry, but there are people out there who spend their time trying to exploit people through their private information.”
Facebook is expected to generate profits of over $30 million this year. Facebook increased its user base last year by changing its requirements for membership to the possession of a valid email address only. Facebook’s audience is increasing at a rate that is almost 20 times that of MySpace.
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