We've all heard the term "Facebook stalking", or as referred to on urban dictionary, "A covert method of investigation, using facebook.com, good for discovering a wealth of information about people you don't actually know." Now this may sound familiar to you, mostly because everyone with an account is probably guilty of an occasional Facebook creep on another user's page. Although initially, the phenomenon of Facebook stalking may seem harmless at this point in your life, the lack of privacy this site exhibits for its members can prove to be extremely dangerous or detrimental for a user's future or career path. I personally experienced an issue with Facebook privacy during high school, as I witnessed the site singlehandedly ruin opportunities for my friends and fellow classmates.

Facebook Can, Will and Has Hurt
During the winter of my senior year of high school, a girl in my grade decided to have a large party to celebrate New Year's Eve. This was in most people's opinion, normal high school behavior and after the party pictures of good times and friends, littered the pages of multiple people in my grades accounts. No one was really concerned with this, or even second-guessed the fact that they were openly airing their dirty laundry to the world of Facebook. Their lack of concern with privacy came back to bite them in the end however, as someone who clearly had deeper issues with the people at the party decided it was their duty to print out the photos and send them to our schools principal. Although the pictures were inoffensive and everyone appeared to be having a great time while still staying safe, there were apparent signs of substance abuse and underage drinking. Due to this indisputable evidence, the principle had no choice but to immediately suspend all of athletes who were in season from their sports teams. This consisted mostly of our entire basketball team. Players couldn't even argue their harsh punishment as each student had violated a strict no drinking policy agreement, which every athlete is responsible of signing in the beginning of the school year. They were not allowed to play in a single game for the rest of the season or even brush up on their skills by attending practice. This scandal not only ruined our current winning record, but it also ruined any chances for the players to receive college scholarship opportunities. The few boys on the team, who had been shown interest by scouts at local colleges, were now out of luck. Looking back on this incident now, I think the one and only positive that came out of this whole experience was that my grade was a lot more careful with what they posted on Facebook. We were all now well aware of the present risks and a consequence of making our private lives public. This is a lesson I hope you learn as well, sooner rather than later.

Risks for your future
Facebook is currently one of the most popular and well-known sites used in our society. While posting personal material may seem risk-free between you and your friends, think about all of the other eyes, strangers' eyes, which can easily find ways to access your account. Since Facebook searches are now being used as a source for a further background check, you need to be aware that no matter how good your resume may be, if you allow inappropriate pictures, wall posts, hobbies, or clubs to be seen on your Facebook page, you are at risk for being judged and stigmatized for it. Michael Fertik, founder and C.E.O of the site, ReputationDefender, has created a service that is aimed at helping people improve their online profiles and maintain their privacy. Being an expert on the subject of harmful personal material, he has this to say on the matter, "Do not mistake the fact that you're a decent person, for the notion that you'll look that way online." Besides employers, administrators at most universities also are scrutinizing Facebook accounts to investigate prospective students that wish to attend their schools. I personally think this type of inspection is unfair, yet the facts don't lie. Facebook was originally created as a college-only based social networking system. Due to this initial comfort zone, students still feel secure when it comes to the material they think is appropriate to put up. Yet, now the site faces little to no limitations on who can join a network. As reported in 2009, Facebook has seen a 513% growth in those who are over 55 years old, while college and high school students have exhibited a severe drop in account use by a shocking 20%. If you take away anything from this warning, I hope you always are aware of the fact, that once you put something up on the Internet, it's very hard to be able to ever completely erase it.

Privacy Rights
Facebook has always had a plethora of issues when concerning an individual's privacy. Your confidential account can be exploited in many ways, ranging from creepers to prospective employers to mere technical glitches. Unaware to most users, every time Facebook entirely redesigns it's site, which occurs a few times a year, your privacy settings return back to default. Now it's up to you to go and manually switch your personal settings back to your liking or you run the risk of a good portion of your information being made public. Besides that point, many find the new and "improved" privacy settings confusing, to a point where they don't even bother to play around with the different levels offered for protecting your information. A company by the name of TechCrunch recently discovered a hole in Facebook's security that apparently made it possible for users to read their friends' private chats for the past few years. Now expanding from glitches made by the company, let's take a deeper look into the corporations own concerns for our privacy. In truth, Facebook's main operators want you to share the maximum amount of your information for their own profit. After all, Mark Zuckerberg, the sites CEO, has argued for years that Facebook users should be more open with their information. I personally can't blame the guy as with over 500 million users, the company has focused on ways to turn the vast amount of data each profile shares, into a multi-billion dollar ad-business. Many people are unaware that every move they make through Facebook is further documented elsewhere, but think about it carefully. Every time you play a popular game, take a quiz, or add an application, all this information can be extracted by businesses for personal gain. In April, Zuckerberg even confirmed that by "liking" a page, your personal account is now fair game to link up to other websites.

Facebook Crime
According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, Facebook related crime has increased by 110%, just in the past year. One concern is that Facebook has become prone to hackers whose main goal is to obtain users private information. For example, last month researchers at the VeriSign's iDefense group, discovered a hacker who had obtained over 1.5 million accounts and was selling them for $25- $45 dollars on the black market. Identity theft through Facebook has increased by 346% in the last year. Damages for the victims of Facebook crime in just 2009 alone, amounted to over $559 million dollars in total. New and unimaginable scams have also emerged with the increase of Facebook reliance. A popular con known as "The 419 scam", involves someone hacking into your profile, and sending out a mass message to all of your "friends" inboxes asking for money. They tend to use excuses like "Help, I've been mugged, and don't have a cell phone" or, "I'm in a foreign country and lost my wallet." Now many people are aware such messages are bogus, yet a truly good friend might fall for such a trap and end up wiring their money to a desolate part of Nigeria.

What is Real?
Not everything you see on Facebook is real. In fact, a surprisingly portion of it isn't. Scammers, who obviously have too much time on their hands, have been known to make fake ads that threaten the health of Facebook users' computers. Recently an anti-virus software was offered on random unlucky users accounts. When those members who were clearly concerned about their hard drives safety went to download the system through the ad, ironically enough they contracted malicious codes and viruses. Another concern, posed by a recent study, shows that approximately 40% of all Facebook profiles are fabricated or just flat out fake. You do the math, if you have 500 friends on Facebook; it's more than likely a percentage of these "friends" aren't real. Even riskier still are the threats of sexual predators, law officers or even school officials that have been making fake profiles in order to check out your information, recent activities or uploads. It comes down to common sense; would you honestly want your mom seeing some of the things on your profile that you willingly make available to 500 people plus?

WORKS CONSULTED
CBS News (2010, May 8) 5 Hidden Dangers of Facebook.
Retrieved From: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/08/earlyshow/saturday/main646933.shtm?tag=contentMain;contentBody
Cummins, H. J (2006, April 3) Bosses Peek In On Facebook to Screen Job Applicants. Retrieved From: http://www.seattlepi.com/business/265153_facebook03.html
Urban Dictionary (2005, Dec 27) Facebook Stalking. Retrieved From: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=facebook+stalking
Vascellaro, Jessica (2010, May 19) Facebook Grapples With Privacy Issues. Retrieved From: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870491200457525272310984574.html