Facing up to Facebook.com Staci Hersh Tom Kupferer Mark Nakamoto Chris Stipeck New York University...

Facing up to Facebook.com

Staci HershTom Kupferer

Mark NakamotoChris Stipeck

New York University

Diversity College

Overview

What Is Facebook.com? Why Should We Act? The Orientation Presentation The Online Tutorial Assessing the Results Wrap-up

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What is Facebook.com? Facebook.com is an online directory much like the paper facebooks we

used to distribute. It allows students to list personal data such as e-mail address, major,

address, instant messenger name, courses, favorites (movies, books, quotes, etc.), and place of work in an online profile.

Students can also form and link themselves to groups, link their profiles to friends, send messages to people on the site, “poke” people, post photographs, and write comments on each others profiles.

Started in 2003 by 2 juniors at Harvard, it is now the fastest growing online directory/social-networking site. 85% of college students use Facebook, and most check their profile (and comments) on a daily basis.

Users must have a .edu e-mail address to join, so the site is also open to administrators, alumni, and faculty.

Privacy options can restrict people’s profiles to friends or friends of friends, but these options are not often exercised.

Related directory/social-networking sites you may hear about include MySpace.com and Friendster.com

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What are Facebook’s risks? For our students:

Inappropriate information: Employers are known to view profiles of prospective applicants and current employees. Other institutions have had problems when students post photos of themselves engaged in activities that violate school policies.

Harrassment: At other institutions (and probably our own), offensive or harassing groups have been formed in Facebook to complain about fellow students, TAs, professors, security officers, and administrators. Students may also post questionable comments.

Privacy/safety: Facebook allows students to post phone numbers, class schedules, room numbers, hometown, job sites, and birth date; information that could be used for stalking or identity theft.

For educators: Litigation: The college risks a negligence suit if it begins monitoring

Facebook profiles/groups and/or blogs officially.

Related issues: blogs (Online journals; both Friendster and MySpace include blogs. Xanga, Livejournal, and Blogger are popular blogging communities), file-sharing

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Why do our students Facebook?

Extension of real life: Many in student affairs would say Facebook impedes face-to-face interactions, but students believe sites like this help them keep in touch with each other.

Unawareness: Although our students are “web savvy,” they are just as prone as anyone else to accepting a website’s conditions of use without reading/understanding them.

False sense of security: Facebook requires users to have a .edu e-mail address, but students underestimate who has access to such e-mails.

Validation: Facebook allows students to connect their profiles to those of their “friends.” But some students may collect linkages/friends to prove popularity or assuage insecurities.

Peer pressure: Facebook groups have been formed expressly to pressure friends into joining the site.

Involuntarily: Sometimes, students create profiles for friends who have not joined Facebook, in effect, forcing them to join. This is unethical and violates Facebook policies.

Sense of community: Many of our students are searching for community, and Facebook provides an easy way to find and join groups. Students on large or unenclosed campuses may feel especially vulnerable.

Escapism: Students may feel freer to experiment with new personas by testing them out online.

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Why are we here today?

Proximate incident: We all probably remember the incident this past fall in which a student sent harassing messages to fellow students over e-mail and Facebook (using his roommate’s account). The issues raised by the incident will not go away. As we mentioned in the beginning, Facebook is widely used and growing quickly. Its new penetration into the high school population may only increase its prevalence.

Brandeis, Tufts, Boston College, Boston University, and Texas Christian are among schools starting to educate students about Facebook-related issues. Like them, we can work to educate our students to help them keep themselves safe online.

Our team was asked to develop a plan to educate our students about Facebook and their responsibility to use the Internet responsibly.

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Project Development Process

The Committee: 2 members of Residence Life, the Assistant Director of IT, a Campus Police Officer, and 2 undergraduate orientation leaders. We also consulted with colleagues in Counseling, LGBT Affairs, and the Diversity Office.

To generate ideas, we decided to consult the literature and Google for news stories on how other campuses have dealt with Facebook-related issues.

Based on this information, we brainstormed some potential approaches and formed a small focus group of current undergraduates to evaluate our ideas.

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Our Approach Based on our discussions and feedback, we concluded that our approach to an

orientation session and online tutorial must satisfy 5 conditions: Broad—Internet technologies evolve and spread rapidly (e.g., In just 3 years,

Facebook has 85% of college undergraduates), so we should address a wide range of technologies and practices: social-networking, instant messaging, blogs.

Employ a mixture of techniques—We know that our students come to us at various levels of development; to reach the maximum number of students, we need to use a variety of techniques. Although our students cannot be easily compartmentalized, if one buys into the theory of Millennials as tech-savvy, group-oriented, career-focused, and more deferential to authority, we should play to those characteristics.

Avoid creating a duty—We do not wish to open the College to negligence claims, so we sought to avoid saying or suggesting that DC has any intention of actively and systematically monitoring their Internet activity.

Respect—Our students grew up in the Internet era and are fairly proficient in the use of technology. The quickest way to have them stop listening would be to approach this too simplistically or too overbearing.

Avoid “abstinence only”-type measures—This respects our students’ autonomy. Some universities have tried to block students from accessing Facebook from the campus network, but at least one stopped when students merely accessed it from non-campus computers. Forbidden fruit seems the most tempting.

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Orientation The following pages include the presentation we intend to give at

Orientation in the Fall and the tutorial students must take and pass before their network privileges take effect.

For the Orientation Program, we assumed it would be delivered by an Academic Adviser and two undergraduate orientation leaders to a small group of first-year students. Because the Orientation schedule is usually tight, we presented the Advising Office with the following PowerPoint presentation to minimize variability between groups and cover the major bases. The Presentation ends with an activity that the Adviser and orientation leaders will facilitate.

The Tutorial and Quiz must be taken by every incoming first-year student before they come to campus. The quiz is not designed to be punitive or excessively difficult. The aim is not to test memorization or Internet savvy, but rather to impart information to keep our students safe. Because of this aim, the quiz presents further information in response to “correct” answers. To help ensure that the tutorial and quiz are read rather than just repeated until passed, we used timers that prevent students from racing through the presentation. The quiz also ends with a selection of “for further reading” for students who are interested in learning more about these issues.

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ONLINE NETWORKING COMMUNITIES:

Facebook.com, MySpace.com, Friendster.com…

Learning to protect your privacy and your future

[This is the presentation developed for Orientation]Diversity College

What are online networking communities?

Online databases that display personal profiles and connect people through social networks.

Facebook.com, MySpace.com, Friendster.com

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PROTECTING YOUR PRIVACY

*Everything You Post Becomes Public

Information!*

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What information can be posted on online networking communities?

CONTACT INFORMATION: Name Address Birthday Gender Email Address Screen Names

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Pictures Anyone can post pictures of you without your

approval Interests

Music Movies Relationship Status Personal Details

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“Facebook also collects information about you from other sources, such as newspapers and instant messaging services. This information is gathered regardless of your use of the Web Site” (http://www.facebook.com/policy.php).

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WHO USES ONLINE NETWORKING COMMUNITIES?

Students Alumni College Administrators Faculty

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WHO CAN VIEW ONLINE NETWORKING COMMUNITY

PROFILES?

All registered members College Faculty and Staff

R.A.s, Professors, T.A.s, Deans Employers Anyone with an internet connection

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PRIVACY POLICY of FACEBOOK.com:

Sharing Your Information with Third Parties

“We may share your information with third

parties, including responsible companies with

which we have a relationship. For example…”

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We may provide information to service providers to help us bring you the services we offer. Specifically, we may use third parties to facilitate our business, such as to send email solicitations. In connection with these offerings and business operations, our service providers may have access to your personal information for use in connection with these business activities.

(http://www.facebook.com/policy.php)

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“We may be required to disclose customer information pursuant to lawful requests, such as subpoenas or court orders, or in compliance with applicable laws. Additionally, we may share account or other information when we believe it is necessary to comply with law or to protect our interests or property. This may include sharing information with other companies, lawyers, agents or government agencies.

(http://www.facebook.com/policy.php)

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Making Informed Decisions…

The most effective way to protect yourself from repercussions of online networking communities is to not create a profile!

If you insist on joining, it is important to understand and use safe practices.

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~Orientation Group Activity~

Break into groups of four Reflect on sample facebook.com profiles

Identify unsafe disclosure of information Present to large group

Create a safe sample profile Discuss repercussions of this “safe” profile being viewed

by R.A.s, professors, college administrators, and prospective employers

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Tutorial – Page 1 – Terms of UseAccording to Facebook’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, Facebook… Can “share your information with third parties.” You should opt out of having your

personal information shared with other companies if you desire to keep your information private.

Can “share account or other information when we believe it is necessary to comply with law.” Although you cannot prevent this transfer, you should realize that Facebook can give your information to government agencies, lawyers, or law enforcement personnel if it feels such action is necessary.

Has an “irrevocable, [and] perpetual” right to “copy … [and] display” your content. Do not forget to cancel your membership if you are no longer interested in the service. If Facebook goes out of business or is bought out someday, your content might be sold to others.

Can remove your profile. If you violate the terms of the agreement, Facebook has the right to terminate your membership.

Can change its policies at any time. - Facebook says it is incumbent on the user to check the privacy policy regularly for any changes.

Other networking sites such as MySpace.com and Friendster.com and blog sites such as Xanga.com and Blogger.com have similar terms, but you should always be careful to read these legally binding documents before agreeing to them to protect yourself.

Time remaining: 2:00.0 [The “Time remaining” countdown timer forces the student to spend at least 2 minutes on this page before the “Next page” button will work. Although this does not guarantee students will read the material, it prevents them from “getting the quiz over with” by fast-forwarding to the quiz.]

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Tutorial – Page 2 – Privacy/Safety According to some sources, young people ages 18-29 are the biggest target for

identity theft. With your Social Security number, driver's license number, birth date, mother's maiden name, job, or bank/credit card number, a person can access your personal data (e.g., cellular phone records), raid bank accounts, or even open credit cards in your name. Although a birth date is just one of the pieces of information needed, why make it easier for a thief? For more information about identity theft, visit the Federal Trade Commission’s ID Theft site (www.consumer.gov/idtheft). Remember, too, that many websites use information like your birth date and place of birth as security questions to retrieve your password and/or username.

Although many obnoxious messages sent over networking sites are from people who may not have the best social skills, there is also the potential for danger from stalkers or people who may intend you harm. Your class schedule, room number, instant messenger ID, phone number, and job can give someone all the tools necessary to find or harass you. If you think you are being stalked or are uncomfortable with messages sent to you online, please notify someone like your RA or Adviser.

Despite what others may tell you, Facebook is not “more secure” than other social-networking or blog sites. Although Facebook requires users to have a .edu e-mail address to join, any information placed online in e-mails, blogs, or profiles is inherently insecure and should be regarded as such.

Time remaining: 2:00.0

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Tutorial – Page 3 – Interpersonal Relationships

Remember that communication is very contextual. A pejorative word or phrase that you often use in playful conversations with your friends may have very different meanings or connotations if said to or overheard by others. In the fast-paced online realm, you may not have time to explain or contextualize your written words before they are seen by dozens (or millions) of people. You only have one chance to leave a first impression, so consider what you write online very carefully because it will be difficult or impossible to “take those words back” if you find they were received poorly.

Similarly, humor often does not translate well online. Despite all the “LOL”s, “J/K’s,” and winking smileys you attach to a note, it is possible your joking comment may not be taken the way you intended.

When others read what you post online, a small disagreement with your roommate or a comment you made about someone in a fit of pique can escalate into a floor-wide disagreement in a residence hall. Be mindful of the people who may see your postings.


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Tutorial – Page 4 – Future Consequences

Some companies admit to searching Facebook profiles or Googling their applicants. Even if it is not part of a company’s official policy, individual hiring managers may decide to peruse online sites. Because of this risk, you need to exercise caution with the material you post online.

Some companies and industries also are known to employ people to monitor auction sites and the Internet for copyright violations and leaks of information. Your personal blog or profile could put you at risk of firing if you reveal confidential or embarrassing information.

Although we do not have such a policy here at DC, some institutions have scrutinized the Facebook profiles of applicants for work study or resident assistant positions.

Currently, insurance actuaries, mortgage lenders, and landlords scrutinize many aspects of your life to determine your worthiness for their coverage, money, and space. Information you freely provide online may someday be fodder for their risk calculations.

Time remaining: 2:00.0Next you will take the quiz. Please do not hit the “Back” button while in the quiz.

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Quiz – Item 1 of 6

True or False? Facebook requires a .edu e-mail address for membership and access to the profiles, so employers can’t access profiles.

Please do not hit the “Back” button on your browser; it will disrupt your quiz, forcing you to start over.

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Quiz – Correct Response Item 1

True or False? Facebook requires a .edu e-mail address for membership and access to the profiles, so employers can’t access profiles.

False.

Students are not the only people who can access Facebook and its profiles; some colleges give alumni .edu e-mail addresses. Some companies have been reported to ask student interns to help them find the Facebook profiles of applicants from their schools.

If you are unsure whether your Facebook profile is “work-safe,” please consult with a counselor in the Career Development and Internship Office (www.diversity.edu/careers).

Time remaining: 1:00.0 [We provide the rationale for the correct response, so we want to ensure that our students are at least taking the time to read it.]


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Quiz – Incorrect Response Item 1True or False? Facebook requires a .edu e-mail address for membership and access to the profiles,

so employers can’t access profiles.

Your answer? True.

This is incorrect. Please do not hit the “Back” button on your browser; it will disrupt your quiz, forcing you to start over. If you give another incorrect answer, you will need to start the quiz from the beginning (You will not need to do the tutorial again unless you wish to read it again.). The quiz questions may also be different. [The IT Department has promised that each student will be given a random selection of 6 questions from a master set of 20 questions each time they attempt the quiz.]



[Now that you’ve seen how the system reacts to correct and incorrect answers, we’ll only present the “correct answer” screens.]

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Quiz – Item 2 of 6True or False? What happens in college, stays in college.

False.

Your undergraduate years are a great time to try new things and develop the skills and strengths that will serve you for a lifetime. However, it is not a carte blanche to act irresponsibly or illegally. Placing unethical or questionable material on your Facebook profile (or in any other Web-based forum, such as a blog) could haunt you long after you leave Diversity College.

To take extreme cases, look at the old records dredged up in the recent confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Alito or any high-profile political campaign. While you may not plan to run for public office, perhaps you may change your mind or you or your partner may want to work for a company or agency that requires background checks like the National Security Agency. Although it may seem harmless or fun to associate yourself with a group promoting drugs or promiscuity, others may not share your views or may deliberately seek to misinterpret them.

Time remaining: 1:00.0Please do not hit the “Back” button on your browser; it will disrupt your quiz, forcing you to start over.

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Quiz – Item 3 of 6True or False? Restricting access to your profile to friends is enough to keep it intrusion-

proof.

False.

While it is more secure to use Facebook’s privacy settings to restrict access to your profile, this is not a guarantee of security. If you or a friend forgets to log out from a computer (say, a computer in a computer lab or even a personal computer if others have access to it), others may intentionally or mistakenly see your information. Internet browsers save previously viewed web sites in a cache, so someone using a computer after you or a friend were looking at Facebook pages could examine the cache to find what you were looking at.

Even if administrators do not have direct access to your profile, if a valid student complaint brings a profile that violates the Campus Conduct Code to our attention, we may have to take action. DC regards threats (to others or oneself) and harassment as serious matters.


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Quiz – Item 4 of 6True or False? The First Amendment guarantees your right to say whatever you want on

your website.

False.

There are recognized legal limits to free speech. For example, it is illegal to say (slander) or write (libel) false statements that damage the reputations of others. It is also illegal to scream “Fire!” in a crowded theater when there is no fire because of the potential risk to human life.

There are also social and disciplinary consequences for certain forms of speech. Diversity College is a community. While you are free to have your own opinions and express your own thoughts, we remind you to consider the impact of your words on others. Even if you believe that certain terms are a result of “political correctness run amok,” it may help to talk with people like your Resident Assistant or Academic Adviser to find out why people might be offended by certain terms or actions. Please read DC’s Antidiscrimination Policy and Campus Conduct Code if you have any doubts or questions.


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Quiz – Item 5 of 6What information in a person’s profile or blog might put a person at personal risk (for stalking, theft,

etc.)? (More than one might be correct.)A. MajorB. Residence hall and room numberC. Instant messenger IDD. Class scheduleE. JobF. Cellular phone number

B, C, D, E, F

Although it may be more convenient to tell someone to “Facebook me” than to write out your contact information, personal information such as residence hall and room number, instant messenger name, class schedule, and your place of work is best handed out to people you know and trust. By placing the information on the Internet, you expose this information for anyone to see (and forward to others, save to a hard drive, etc.). Your residence hall room number, job site, and class schedule can make it easy for someone to follow you. The practice of posting detailed “away messages” on instant messenger profiles could allow someone to follow you or know when you’re not home. Your cellular phone number can allow people to contact you, but there have also been cases where people have illicitly obtained phone records by calling the phone company and pretending to be the registered owner of a cell phone number (“pretexting”).


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Quiz – Item 6 of 6True or False? Future employers and DC have no right to monitor or regulate my off-

work/school, private activities online.

False.

Like free speech, privacy is not an absolute right. And posting materials online is often considered to remove an activity from the private sphere into the public arena. Employers have fired people for exposing trade secrets and/or acting in a manner contrary to the employer’s image in online profiles/blogs.

DC provides students with access to the Internet for educational pursuits. However, we also reserve the right to set limits on your use. For example, for security reasons we do not let students run servers over their DC connection, and for bandwidth and regulatory reasons, we do not allow students to sell or promote goods or services from their DC web accounts. We also may seek judicial action under the Campus Conduct Code if we are made aware that you have threatened or harassed another member of the DC community.


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Assessing Results

After this fall’s first run-through, we advise running focus groups and submitting surveys to all the first-year students. The IT Department can also provide us with statistics to show how many times students took the quiz and if any of the questions were problematic. We will distribute results to all student affairs directors for comment by mid-October.

In following years, follow-up will consist of random-sample surveys of first-year students and quiz statistics from the IT Department. We will also be asking academic advisers to ask their advisees about their impressions of the quiz. The results of these measures will be reported to the Dean of Student Life, who can decide if a full-scale reevaluation or distribution is necessary.

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In Conclusion We sought to design a program that would respect the

experience our incoming students have with the Internet while providing them with the tools to use the Internet safely and responsibly.

Internet technologies are growing rapidly, so we may need to reexamine our Campus Conduct Code to ensure it protects and informs our students about their rights and responsibilities.

Resident assistants may need suggestions for additional hall programming on Internet safety topics.

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Resources consultedCalleros, C. R. (1997). Preparing for the worst—and striving for the best: Training

university employees to respond clearly, constructively, and constitutionally to hateful speech on campus. Journal of Law & Education, 26(4), 41–68.

Capriccioso, R. (2006, February 14). Facebook face off. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved February 14, 2006, from http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/02/14/facebook

Epstein, D. (2005, October 3). Cleaning up their online acts. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved February 14, 2006, from http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/10/03/online

Gross, R., & Acquisti, A. (2005, November 7). Information revelation and privacy in online social networks. Presented at Workshop on Privacy in the Electronic Society, Alexandria, VA.

Hass, N. (2006, January 8). In your Facebook.com. New York Times, p. 4A.30.

Howe, N., & Strauss, W. (2000). Millenials Rising: The next great generation. New York, NY: Knopf Publishing Group.

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Resources consulted, cont.

Moneta, L. (2005). Technology and student affairs. New Directions for Student Services, 112, 3–14.

Neiger, J. A., Palmer, C., Penney, S., & Gehring, D. G. (1998). Addressing hate speech and hate behaviors in codes of conduct: A model for public institutions, NASPA Journal, 35(3), 193–206.

Peace, A. G. (1997). Academia, censorship, and the internet. Journal of Information Ethics, 62, 35–47.

Read, B. (2006, January 20). Think before you share. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 52(20), 38. Retrieved February 15, 2006, from LexisNexis Academic database.

Wolk, D. (2004). Social-networking sites pique the interest of company recruiters. Workforce Management, 83(8), 70–73.

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Facing up to Facebook.com Staci Hersh Tom Kupferer Mark Nakamoto Chris Stipeck New York University...

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