Be wise, be wary on Facebook

Ah, Facebook -- the ultimate communication tool and photo album for millions, especially high school and college students. With a number of new applications, Facebook has grown tremendously over the past few years.

Last month it made the news when someone blackmailed Amy Polumbo, A.K.A. Miss New Jersey, with pictures taken off of her Facebook profile.

After Miss New Jersey's fiasco, Facebook is making the news once again. It was recently spotted that presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani's 17-year-old daughter, Caroline, was a member of the group "Barack Obama (One Million Strong for Barack)" on Facebook. After the discovery, she immediately removed the group from her site.

As much as I like to think Facebook is private as they say they are, little stories like these always burst my bubble. Giuliani's daughter most likely did not intend to make the headlines as she did for a group she joined. Polumbo certainly did not expect her private pictures to be made public for all of America to see.

"At Facebook, we believe that people should have control over how they share information and who can see it," the Web site says about their commitment to privacy. Yet, if this was really the case, would things like the Polumbo or Giuliani incidents be happening? Would job seekers and potential sorority pledges have to shut down their Facebooks completely just so no one could see their profiles?

After reading that you may be surprised that I am a big fan of Facebook myself. When used properly it's a great way to keep in touch with out-of-town friends and family members. And while I will argue that Facebook is a thousand times safer than its competitor MySpace, I don't feel completely at ease. There's always that question in the back of my mind of who is looking my profile that I don't know.

And while I have this little internal argument with myself, I know no matter how much it bothers me, I will still keep my Facebook. Due to the major pluses of the site, not always knowing who is looking at my profile is a risk I'm willing to take.

I hope my conflicting views don't send any worrisome parents over the edge into thinking their teenager shouldn't have Facebook. Like anything else, it's something that should be used with caution. Just remember the rule of thumb about putting information on Facebook: if it turns your face red, delete it instead.