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You can de-tag but you can't hide

With the advent of increasingly invasive online technology, stalking is no longer a fringe activity reserved for unabashed keyhole peepers and easily gratified voyeurs. We watch each other's every move, looking at compromising pictures from parties, all from the comfort of our own computers.

There is no denying that privacy is slowly becoming a thing of the past. We could blame the Patriot Act, hackers and hidden cameras, but doing so would be a bit hypocritical. You may not realize it, but every time you log onto facebook.com or AOL Instant Messenger, use a prox or turn your cell phone on, you are contributing to this frenzy of tracking. Yes, you're being watched. But you're watching, too.

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People no longer need to spy through windows; they can do it through Windows XP. Monika Krach '08 says she spends one hour a day talking on AIM, but "five to eight hours with an away message [up]." Number three on the 2,000-plus member global Facebook group College Ten Commandments is "Thou Shalt Write Witty Away Messages," and many students say they spend far more time keeping tabs on their friends through away messages than actually talking on AIM. A new Facebook section called "status" serves a similar function.

A sampling of these messages yields information about where a student is currently located, how busy he or she is, how much he or she partied over the weekend, even a current emotional state. This information is willingly given, with the understanding that it is public, but students often seem to forget how public it is.

"I left AIM six months ago and I've never looked back," says James Mister '09. "People kept stalking me because I had my AIM address on Facebook, sparking up conversations." Ultimately, things got too awkward for Mister, forcing him to cut the cord. "I'd have to make up excuses for stopping [the conversations]," he says. "Like, 'my mom's calling," or 'I have to go to the bathroom.' "

Facebook caused a highly publicized stir with its controversial News Feed and Mini Feed, which keep members up-to-date on their friends' every move: an alert pops up whenever someone, adds a friend or changes his favorite music. Immediately after the introduction of these two additions, angry Facebook users created the group "Students against Facebook News Feed (Official Petition to Facebook)." At its peak, it had around 750,000 members. Collette Abbott '10 joined the group after her first exposure to the News Feed, when she learned information about a friend that was none of her business.

"I saw a little icon of a broken heart next to a guys name — someone I knew in high school — and it said [he was] no longer in a relationship," she said in an email. "It just seemed really over the top ... It documents everything you do, [things that] maybe you don't want random people to know about."

The negative public reaction was unprecedented and prompted an immediate revision and apology by Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, himself, beginning: "We really messed this one up."

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The problem, Zuckerberg wrote to the members of Facebook, wasn't the addition itself — it was his assumption that they would accept it without protest. After all, all News Feed did was compile the veritable treasure-trove of information already readily available with a little searching. In signing Facebook's End User License Agreement when they created their accounts, all members — whether they realized it or not — gave Zuckerberg the rights to all the information they provide.

The agreement reads, "By posting Member Content to any part of the Web site, you automatically grant ... to the Company an irrevocable ... worldwide license ... to use, copy ... display ... and distribute such information..."

Facebook literally owns your personal information — and you signed up for it.

Given the choice, would most students remove themselves from Facebook in order to preserve their identities?

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Dexter Doyle '09 says yes. "If I were really into not having my info out there, I would. But I'd have to make sure I was calling people more often or something, or contacting them in a different way [in order to stay as connected]." So far, however, he's sticking with it.

There are, on the other hand, many unexpected bonuses to knowing the nitty-gritty about your Facebook friends. It's less awkward to be updated about your old boyfriend's relationship in a News Feed than by making a biannual call to see how he's doing. It's useful to plan your Saturday night based on what party and performance invitations you've seen that your crush has accepted.

The reactions are mixed, yes, but Harvard student Mike Nguyen offers a solution. In the description for the "Defenders of Facebook's Right to News Feed (and whatever Zuckerberg wants)," he writes, "While I certainly acknowledge Facebook has gone a bit too far this time, remember, there's always the option of not using [it]."

So far, few have stopped. Our generation seems to need the Internet to live. In the words of computer science professor Brian Kernighan, though, "[these exact needs and] habits of your generation [are what] make it really easy for someone to find you online." Admitting that even he searches the Internet for information about his students ("It makes them more human"), Kernighan warns against the excessive publicizing of what really ought to remain private — it could be potentially damaging in the future.

"I once went on the Athletes Behaving Badly site and thought, 'Oh my God, that's one of my Princeton students!' " Kernighan recalls. "It didn't matter at all to me, but it might to an employer."

Indeed, we find ourselves in an increasingly precarious situation; with caches and an exponentially increasing amount of memory available, everything that gets posted on the internet will stay there ... forever. Though you feel safe now because that picture of you covered in marker and holding a cup has been "detagged" and is therefore anonymous, it won't necessarily stay that way.

As Professor Kernighan warns, "Not now, but five or 10 years down the road, there will be picture matching that doesn't rely on tagging. You will be able to search by using an image compatibility engine."

So be warned, fellow members of Generation-Internet, your personal mail and pictures might be yours, but they are also the property of the government, your company and the general public. Now sign offline, log off Facebook and turn off the phone. Otherwise it could be goodbye anonymity and hello, Orwell.