DPS issues guidelines on Facebook

As students call for "poke" attacks and scramble to block Public Safety officers from viewing their facebook.com profiles, Public Safety director Steven Healy has issued guidelines establishing how officers may use the site.

Officers can continue to use Facebook as a supplementary source for investigations, but cannot scour the site for parties or other activities. In addition, officers are prohibited from identifying themselves as students in their Facebook accounts.

"I appreciate student concerns," Healy said. "The trust of students is very important. We must build and maintain trust to work in a synergistic manner."

University officials are also seeking to downplay Public Safety's past use of the networking site as an investigative tool.

University Executive Vice President Mark Burstein, who supervises the Department of Public Safety, called the recent controversy "a basic conversation of what is public information in our environment. I believe in a healthy conversation about these issues. That's what makes Princeton a place I want to be a part of."

Burstein noted, however, that "if a student feels facebook.com is private in any way, that [position] is not supported legally."

In a March 9 Daily Princetonian article, Deputy Director of Public Safety Charles Davall called the site an "effective tool" for investigations. A month earlier, Davall denied that his department used the site to track students' activities, calling such surveillance "like Big Brother watching you."

"There has been some confusion from the deputy director's comments being misinterpreted," Healy said. "We don't use [Facebook] in a preemptive, proactive manner. We don't go on fishing expeditions. In cases where investigations lead you to other sources, facebook.com is a public website, so it is used in certain situations."

Healy explained that during investigations, Public Safety officers often use public Internet sites like eBay or Google. "If the information [is about] an activity that is dangerous for the campus community or an individual and the information leads to facebook.com, we will use it as a tool."

Healy also commented on the specific incident discussed in the article, which involved the Facebook group Princeton Buildering Society. "We learned of Buildering because someone brought it to our attention," he said. "I can't stand by this 100 percent, but I believe it was the first time we used it in an investigation. We were primarily concerned about student safety over the clear violation of University policy."

Regarding student users' right to privacy, Facebook spokesman Chris Hughes said, "Students have total control over what information they share and who they want to share it with. At the end of the day, we're interested in giving as much control to our users as possible."

Besides the question of privacy, students said they were upset that some of the Public Safety officers with Facebook accounts had listed themselves as undergraduates. As of last night, no officers were found to have student accounts.

Dave Harris '07 said he believes it was "inappropriate ... that a number of Public Safety officers [had] marked their accounts as belonging to students. Facebook.com offers a number of privacy settings, including one which allows only other students to view your profile. By listing themselves as students, Public Safety [was] circumventing these settings and invading student privacy."

Addressing this concern, Healy said that some officers are undergraduates or graduate students at other institutions. "I don't believe any of our officers were trying to deceive members of the community," he said.

Though several universities nationwide — including the University of Michigan, Penn State and George Washington University — have acknowledged using Facebook as an investigative tool, police officers from Harvard and Yale did not admit consulting the site.

"I don't think I'm even familiar with [Facebook]. I know MySpace.com because it's in the media, but not Facebook," Michael Patten of Yale's police department said. "We use the Internet; the websites vary during types of investigations. It's difficult to know [if the University's Department of Public Safety's actions are appropriate] without the specifics of cases or the website."

Steven Catalano of Harvard's Police Department declined to say whether it is appropriate for law enforcement officers to use Facebook. "I'm not going to comment on another department's policies. As a matter of policy, we don't discuss our investigative techniques," he said.

Catalano added, though, that "people should be careful what they post on the Internet because once it's up, it's public."

Related

— Lenahan faults Public Safety on Facebook (March 13, 2006) — Public Safety admits use of Facebook (March 9, 2006) — Who's reading your Facebook? (Feb. 10, 2006)