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Facebook Opening Up For The Public

Posted by Zonk on Tue Sep 12, 2006 07:48 AM
from the getting-to-know-you-getting-to-know-all-about-you dept.
The Internet Privacy
Krishna Dagli writes to mention a BusinessWeek article about a move by Facebook to open up to the public. Up until now, in order to join Facebook you had to be an alumnus from certain High Schools, Colleges, or companies. Soon, individuals living in any one of 500 'geographic regions' can sign up. From the article: "People who joined Facebook because it was primarily a school-focused network may feel that it's losing a key distinction. As with the 'news feed' announcement, reception to this overhaul will come down to how well Facebook communicates. For the average student at New York University, for instance, little changes. The only people who can browse his profile before were other NYU students and that will stay the same. The change simply allows for 500 new groups to form that all operate independently on the Facebook platform. No one can browse all 9 million registered users."
Update: 09/12 16:29 GMT by Z : Fixed latin conjugation. Mrs. Tomlinson would be so proud.

Related Stories

[+] Facebook Changes Provoke Uproar Among Users 426 comments
coastal984 writes, "Facebook, the college (and now, high school and professional) networking site, launched changes to their web site this morning, provoking a massive and immediate response, and not the one the company had hoped for. Hundreds of protest 'Groups' formed, the largest of which have over 10,000 members, and sites like this student portal sprang up to pour scorn on the recent changes. The biggest gripe is the new "News Feed" on every page that tracks recent changes, activities, and comments made by everyone the user is connected to, such as a change in a user's relationship status." These details were all public previously, but it was only through intentional browsing that they would be discovered. In the words of one user, "Stalking is supposed to be hard."
[+] Facebook Scrambles after Unexpected Privacy Fumble 196 comments
bart_scriv writes "Facebook is responding to the recent uproar among its users by deploying better privacy protections and control, as well as being more open about future changes. This could be a case study for other social networking sites on how to avoid or deal with similar problems in the future." From the article: "A week before launch, when asked if he was concerned about a privacy backlash, he appeared surprised, saying, 'No, these people share stuff already and they get something out of sharing.' They've shared all right. And Facebook is listening. On Sept. 7, the site is ratcheting up privacy protections--the result of around-the-clock coding. On their privacy settings page, people will be given greater control over what items will or won't be included in news feeds." Relatedly, an anonymous reader writes "A recent Reuters article mentions that Facebook user Igor Hiller, 17, a freshman at University of California, Santa Barbara is organizing a real-world demonstration next Monday at Facebook's downtown Palo Alto headquarters." Read below for Zuckerman's Open Letter to the community.
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  • This is differnt? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Siberwulf (921893) on Tuesday September 12 2006, @07:49AM (#16087849)
    How is this different than MySpace now? other than the fact that now sexual predators know that a majority of the memebers are coeds?
    • Re:This is differnt? by jimstapleton (Score:1) Tuesday September 12 2006, @07:54AM

    • Re:This is differnt? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by keyshawn632 (726102) on Tuesday September 12 2006, @08:30AM (#16088040)
      (Last Journal: Saturday September 18 2004, @04:55PM)
      Eh, besides the ability to make your profile really tacky by having a god-awful color scheme, flash, and a music stream; only noticible difference [between facebook and myspace] that I see is that you must 'friend' the other person in order to see their entire profile.

      However, If you're not their 'friend', their name still comes up in the search engine and you can still see their name, school, a profile picture/avatar, and who they have listed as their friends. Although the information coming up in the search engine seems like a bit much, you can configure it so that your information does not come up in the search engine.
      The caveat with that, though, is that no one outside of your school network can make a friend request to you. You would have to initiate all friend requests.

      As a college student and facebook user, Facebook jumped the shark a long time ago .
      (adding high school, companies onto there, the status updates...)

      I'm not looking forward to having random middle-aged men sending me friend requests on facebook (I got these even as a male on myspace, and the college ladies will have their inboxes filled... *shudders*)
      [ Parent ]

    • Re:This is differnt? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Garse Janacek (554329) on Tuesday September 12 2006, @08:38AM (#16088069)
      Well, facebook generally doesn't make the backs of my eyeballs feel like they're on fire, the way the page design on myspace usually does...
      [ Parent ]
    • Re:This is differnt? by PrescriptionWarning (Score:1) Tuesday September 12 2006, @08:45AM
    • Re:This is differnt? by Siberwulf (Score:2) Tuesday September 12 2006, @07:57AM

    • Re:This is differnt? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by dfghjk (711126) on Tuesday September 12 2006, @08:39AM (#16088081)
      Didn't know the victim had to be underage for someone to be a "sexual predator".
      [ Parent ]
    • 2 replies beneath your current threshold.

  • No more open than it was before (Score:4, Insightful)

    by finkployd (12902) * on Tuesday September 12 2006, @07:54AM (#16087869)
    (http://homestarrunner.com/)
    People, if you have no caught on to this yet, a lot of employers have people at a lot of schools pulling facebook profiles for their HR dept. Some undergrad they pay, nephew of the CEO attending classes, a staff member, whatever. Your facebook profile WILL be seen outside of the fantasy restrictions you think facebook puts on it. They are under no obligation to honor those restrictions anyway, they could open up the whole thing tomorrow to the world and there is nothing you can do about it. The content you put on it is theirs, not yours, and they can license it to whomever they want or distribute it as they see fit. Read the ToS agreement.

    Finkployd

  • "An alumni"? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Simon Garlick (104721) on Tuesday September 12 2006, @07:58AM (#16087893)
    Latin, motherf*cker, do you speak it?!

  • No one? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by cerberusss (660701) <slashdot@vanku[ ]nl ['ik.' in gap]> on Tuesday September 12 2006, @08:02AM (#16087906)
    (http://www.dutchvirtual.nl/ | Last Journal: Friday August 10, @07:04AM)
    No one can browse all 9 million registered users."
    No one, except the owning company.
    • Re:No one? by yoinkgush (Score:1) Tuesday September 12 2006, @09:59AM
    • Re:No one? by cerberusss (Score:2) Tuesday September 12 2006, @08:25AM
    • 2 replies beneath your current threshold.

  • We don't need another Myspace (Score:5, Insightful)

    by thoriphes (984506) on Tuesday September 12 2006, @08:05AM (#16087923)
    There are already sites like MySpace and Friendster in the scene, we don't need Facebook to become one of them. The beauty of Facebook was that it was somewhat of a closed community where people were on the same level, if you will. College is a society on its own and Facebook allows the sharing of a lot of commonalities and close-knit ties with people in your campus as well as others. If you open the floodgates for the public, you'll just bring in an onslaught of stalkers (the newsfeed only makes things worse). There's already been quite the resentment for allowing high-schoolers to sign up for Facebook, what now for the common public?

    • Re:We don't need another Myspace (Score:4, Interesting)

      by OakDragon (885217) on Tuesday September 12 2006, @08:27AM (#16088024)
      (Last Journal: Friday August 24, @08:52PM)
      The beauty of Facebook was that it was somewhat of a closed community where people were on the same level, if you will. College is a society on its own and Facebook allows the sharing of a lot of commonalities and close-knit ties with people in your campus as well as others.

      I think you hit the nail on the head here. (I know you're right; you agree with me!) This is the way I have observed college students using Facebook. (I haven't been a student for a few years, but I know some.) I think this might actually hurt Facebook in the long run. Call it over-reaching, feature creep or what have you. Companies often kill the golden-egged goose because they begin to want silver and ruby eggs, too.

      [ Parent ]
    • Re:We don't need another Myspace by smallpaul (Score:2) Tuesday September 12 2006, @02:41PM
    • Re:We don't need another Myspace by ocdude (Score:1) Wednesday September 13 2006, @12:06AM
    • 3 replies beneath your current threshold.

  • Let me sum it up by saying... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Billosaur (927319) * <wgrother&optonline,net> on Tuesday September 12 2006, @08:07AM (#16087929)
    (Last Journal: Wednesday November 07, @10:09AM)

    ...whoop-dee-dooooo! If you find some use for it, great, but the fact is, I can build my own personal web site to do all the communicating with others I need, and I can control the content, and I don't have to worry about the vagueries of someone deciding to change the rules. Facebook, like MySpace, is overrated.

  • Coming soon: (Score:5, Funny)

    by shoptroll (544006) on Tuesday September 12 2006, @08:08AM (#16087933)
    I bet there's going to be a merger at some point. Coming soon: FaceSpace!

  • Humor (Score:4, Interesting)

    by SirLestat (452396) on Tuesday September 12 2006, @08:11AM (#16087948)
    Look at what I found just this morning, what a coincidence: http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1707663 [collegehumor.com]. That is also why I try not put any personal information on the web.

  • Let the Stalking Begin (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Deinhard (644412) on Tuesday September 12 2006, @08:13AM (#16087956)
    I'm much removed from the social networking sites such as FaceBook (by time) and MySpace (by desire) but it seemed to me that the main advantage of FaceBook was that it was a relatively safe place for HS and College students to meet and interact.

    Now, with the addition of millions of potential users, it seems (as others have said) that the site should become MyFaceBook.

    Why can't site operators (even those that pay millions for established market share) realize that they can make a reasonable profit within niche markets? That was the entire purpose behind the original "Virtual Community" concept of the late 90s. People can belong to multiple niches and can receive targeted messages based on the site they are currently visiting.

    I could keep moaning and bitching, but it would just lead to a rant...

  • Replace Facebook (Score:3, Interesting)

    by dorango (1001897) on Tuesday September 12 2006, @08:16AM (#16087972)
    A group of students decided to replace Facebook with a student built and operated site... If Facebook really has lost touch with its userbase, perhaps these guys can offer a decent alternative to MySpace/Facebook for students. http://digg.com/software/Outraged_Students_Replace _Facebook [digg.com] I signed up, it's a little low on features, but they've only had a week. I think it's something to keep an eye on. -Dorango

  • Facebook's lost touch with its users (Score:2, Interesting)

    by BASICman (799037) on Tuesday September 12 2006, @08:25AM (#16088014)
    It's beyond me wy Facebook is doing something like this a a week after pissing of at least a ninth of its active membership. Last week browising all the outrage groups that sprung up, many people said that they felt the site lost its way when it let High School students join. While allowing outside access to Facebook is quite clearly the best buisness route to take, the question that comes up is whether or not it alienates its original niche? The immediate answer is no; college sutdents still will use Facebook. But what Facebook fails to remember is that college students (and society in general) are fickle. While you may have them all today, if you make a series of wrong moves and then something (better?) comes along, they'll all ditch you like roadkill.

  • Biggest problem with facebook (Score:3, Informative)

    by falcon5768 (629591) <Falcon5768@NosPAm.comcast.net> on Tuesday September 12 2006, @08:25AM (#16088020)
    (Last Journal: Friday October 24 2003, @12:44PM)
    was the fact it NEEDED my university email to allow me to join. My school doesnt allow allum to have free email addresses, only students. While its cheap to get it, I saw no need to have a 5th email address. But facebook refused to let me sign up as a allum without one, so I said fuck it. Maybe if they would understand that not all schools allow thier students to keep emails then maybe more people might sign up to it.

  • College students also join regions (Score:3, Informative)

    by ZachPruckowski (918562) <zachary.pruckowski@gmail.com> on Tuesday September 12 2006, @08:26AM (#16088023)
    I'm a college student on Facebook (yes, I'm sure you can find the profile if you look, there's nothing bad on there). I know that I, and many of my facebook friends are in these geographic regions networks as well as college networks. I'm in the Washington, DC one, for example, so that means that now people who just live in DC can view my profile, not just college or high school students from DC. I don't think most college kids realize that.

  • Townies...!!! (Score:4, Funny)

    by DeusExMalex (776652) on Tuesday September 12 2006, @08:28AM (#16088030)
    Great. Now I get to be harrassed by townies on the Internet, too. Profile = private.

  • Soon? (Score:1, Informative)

    by liryon (804280) <liryon@NOsPAM.gmail.com> on Tuesday September 12 2006, @08:40AM (#16088087)
    The writeup says soon, but facebook has been allowing sign-ups for geogrphical regions for months now. Old news, move along.
    • Re:Soon? by tmjr3353 (Score:2) Tuesday September 12 2006, @09:08AM

  • No one? (Score:2, Informative)

    by TheSeventh (824276) on Tuesday September 12 2006, @08:47AM (#16088126)
    > No one can browse all 9 million registered users.

    Except of course, for the site owners, and the government. Thanks to GW and the DHS, the government has access to all of Myspace, facebook, friendster, etc. Because you know terrorists are big on facebook. They like to create groups like "Facebook is for infidels" and "I just started a jihad 5 minutes ago".

    Consider anything you put on there easily enough open to anybody. It's not difficult to create university email addresses, which is why places, fake celebrities, and even people's pets and "Delicious Beer" can create profiles on facebook (although facebook has been removing pets and inanimate object profiles).

  • Lame, lame, lame. (Score:1)

    by Mr. Samuel (950418) on Tuesday September 12 2006, @10:22AM (#16088654)
    "Where is Facebook? Is it safe? Is it alright? Nooooooooooo!"

  • Name Change In Order? (Score:2)

    by Aqua_boy17 (962670) on Tuesday September 12 2006, @10:24AM (#16088673)
    OpenedFace?

  • Dodgeball (Score:2)

    by cuban321 (644777) on Tuesday September 12 2006, @10:31AM (#16088731)
    I have no idea why Facebook and Myspace are so popular when an actually useful social networking site like dodgeball exists. No stupid comments, no stupid bulletins, just a website used to help meet up with your friends and get out of your house!
  • When the closed up (in a worse degree) service known as Orkut that uses the euphemism of "Trusted Friends" to soften up the word elitism opens up and is otherwise unaltered. Facebook - it's known that it could be open.

  • Exclusivity R.I.P. (Score:2)

    by Duncan3 (10537) on Tuesday September 12 2006, @11:03AM (#16088964)
    (http://www.mithral.com/~beberg/)
    Around here (Stanford), Facebook is only used at all by the undergrad girls because they know it's only college students, and thus they don't feel total vulnerable posting private info. The guys only use it to stalk them. And both are just clueless kids really, but smart enough to avoid MySpace at least.

    Or at least that's the impression I get, I'm too old to "get" why posting private info is ever good, and the campus directory works fine for me, and IS private.

    So I'd say Facebook is now R.I.P. Women will leave FAST if they have any brains at all with both employeers and every sex offender in the area now on the prowl.

  • What this really opens up Facebook to is Spammers (Score:1)

    by nintendo_is_a_cereal (891137) on Tuesday September 12 2006, @11:48AM (#16089385)
    The great part about requiring a college email address was that it was a great way to prevent spammers from signing up. I can sign into Facebook, check some stuff out and not come away with my inbox being full of friend requests from crappy Jam bands, wanna be stand up Comedians, and fake profiles for webcam sites. I'm not a heavy facebook user by any means, but if the spam becomes as bad as MySpace then my usage will drop to nonexistant.

  • double edged sword (Score:1)

    by ultramrw21 (889103) on Tuesday September 12 2006, @12:09PM (#16089630)
    thats the way i see it, im an avid user of facebook, its a lot simpler(used to be) and a little more private than myspace. this new change could be really good, i have a few friends how didnt go to college and id like to keep up with them. It might end up being a great way to meet local friends with similar interests. But im a 19 year old guy, who internet-savvy and is cautiuos about new friend requests from people i dont know. I sure as hell dont think its a good idea if its opening high school age kids or anyone not-so-cautiuos to total strangers that could hurt them or ruin their life. My suggestion, give averyone an option to totally block anyone from knowing they exist outside of their networks. I understand that they want to get more people into facebook, but in reality they're just pissing off all the old loyal users

  • The neighborhood (Score:2)

    by 4D6963 (933028) on Tuesday September 12 2006, @01:47PM (#16090501)
    (http://www.geocities...atepower_gangsta.htm)
    Awesome, now I can get on Facebook and register with France as my region, so that only french people can see my profile. Makes me feel so much more secure than if Canadians or Germans could see my profile...

  • At this rate . . . (Score:1)

    by KalElOfJorEl (998741) on Tuesday September 12 2006, @02:12PM (#16090735)
    They may as well go register the domain myspace.edu since they're now the bastard child of a smart concept for college students/alumni and that cesspool of social gangrene.

  • Re:um.... (Score:2)

    by ZeroExistenZ (721849) on Tuesday September 12 2006, @08:20AM (#16087997)
    well, not without RSI!
    [ Parent ]
  • The Reason you are too old to join a high school network is because its for people who are currently in high school. It is so that the high school network section doesn't become like myspace (with the predators.) Once a region gets up, you can join that region, and then list the high school you went to and the year. Then people can search for you based on the high school you went to.

    -Ed
    [ Parent ]

  • Re:The micro$oft connection (Score:1)

    by juggledean (792527) on Tuesday September 12 2006, @10:52AM (#16088899)
    (http://slashdot.org/~juggledean | Last Journal: Sunday July 31 2005, @08:04PM)
    well so much for moderation. The link refers to the new "association" of microsoft and facebook whereby microsoft will be advertising on the facebook. The op is trying to suggest that it would benefig ms to have a larger group of people to show their advertisements. It wouldn't be the first time that a company tailored their product to suit a large corporation.
    [ Parent ]
  • 6 replies beneath your current threshold.

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