What to do About Facebook Stalking?

The top search result in Google for the term “facebook tutorial” is a video that came out when Facebook first launched its News Feed. In it, a guy jokes about how the News Feed makes his hobby of stalking girls on Facebook so much easier.

I remember the reaction among college students to the unilateral launch of the News Feed. They thought it was scary and creepy. Eventually, most people came to realize that it was cool, but the way that Facebook launched it — unilaterally and without community input — was a bad move. Thankfully, Facebook was able to recover quickly.

The reality of Facebook stalking is much more onerous. Earlier this year, a student at the University of Mary Washington was attacked by a crazy person who disagreed with his stance on the Iraq war. The attacker found his name associated with the Young Republicans from his college, got his address off of Facebook and came to his house.

Good use of Facebook’s privacy settings and a dose of common sense are helpful in avoiding these situations. But even so, how do you remain open to meeting new people and making new contacts while protecting yourself from stalking? When it comes to privacy, what is a good standard for professionals using the site to engage communities?

Welcome to our community! If you like what you see, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed!