Facebook updates 'creepy'

When IU senior Paul Kloet woke up Tuesday morning, he went through his normal routine: shower, clothes, e-mail, Facebook.\nFacebook. That's where the routine derailed. \n"When I got on there, I felt shocked, overwhelmed," he said. "The only time I can remember feeling that from my computer in the recent past is when I opened up CNN.com the other day and heard the Crocodile Hunter was killed by a stingray."\nKloet was one of many students dealing with a considerably new Facebook Tuesday. The popular social networking site launched two new features, "news feed" and "mini-feed," that immediately present the latest changes and interactions students have made on their profiles -- changes that Facebook management hopes will revolutionize the network. But some students are wary that new features on the site create a serious concern that profile information is being unwittingly broadcast to "friends" they'd rather not correspond with. \nBy Tuesday evening, plenty of global groups had sprung up on the service expressing just that concern, deriding the site's new news feeds and rallying against what some students referred to as privacy violations. \nThe largest of the groups was "Students Against Face Book News Feed (Official Petition to Facebook)," which had more than 70,000 members as of Tuesday night. Other groups grew throughout the day, including "NEW FACEBOOK SUCKS ASS," "People who hate the new facebook because they like their privacy" and "People who hate the ridiculous new facebook." \nOne of the larger groups, with about 850 members by press time, was founded by IU junior Helen Reynolds almost as soon as the changes took place. \n"I started my group for two reasons," Reynolds said. "First, the new feature is just creepy. Second, when I sign into Facebook, I don't really need to know about some kid on my friends list that dropped a TV show out of his favorites." \nReynolds wants people who dislike the changes to send suggestions to the Facebook management, in hopes that the news feed feature will be reversed. \n"I'm sure (Facebook management) won't change things based on groups," she said. "It will take a certain number of suggestions to sway them -- power in numbers I guess."\nOn Facebook's official blog, which announces new features and tidbits about the site, feed project manager Ruchi Sanghvi explained the new features and Facebook's ambitious hope for the site's development. \n"News Feed highlights what's happening in your social circles on Facebook," Saghvi wrote. "It updates a personalized list of news stories throughout the day, so you'll know when Mark adds Britney Spears to his Favorites or when your crush is single again." \nShe continued, writing that Facebook management hopes the new features would make the service unlike anything else on the Web. \nWhile the features broadcast every little profile change to everyone on each member's friends list, the list is limited based on each member's privacy settings. If someone could not see a member's information before the feed, they still cannot see it now. \nUse of the mini-feed is similar. The "news" updates are limited to the person's own profile, again restricting the amount of access viewers could have based on preexisting privacy settings. Also, members can remove items from their mini-feed if they want. \nBut the news feature, Reynolds said, goes beyond the typical privacy justifications and stretches into the unnecessary. \n"Obviously, if you don't want someone to see something on your profile, then don't put it on there," she said. "But you don't want to close your profile off to some people, and now the subtlety of removing one thing from your interests or something is entirely lost. Now, everything is a news update." \nNot all students are opposed to the changes. Senior Christine Jacques said the convenience of the features, especially the mini-feed, was a positive addition. \n"I kind of like it," she said. "When someone's profile says 'recently updated,' this lets you know what that update actually was." \nSenior Steven Ballinger disagreed, saying the site was reverting to a middle school-style gossip fest. He said a couple he knew just broke up, and he was greeted with the news as soon as he logged on to the site. \n"I don't need to know everyone else's business," he said. "What's worse, it came out of nowhere. They didn't announce it or anything, and you have to use it. The Facebook interface used to be so simple, and now it's just like every other networking site." \nIt is still unclear if Facebook users will continue to use the service or be driven away by the new changes, but if past changes are any indication, most will stay. Facebook has made regular overhauls to its site while constantly expanding its users since arriving at IU in 2003. \nWhile Kloet contemplated removing his profile from the Facebook permanently, he cast the blame on himself and his peers, those whose views of internet privacy he sees as inherently hypocritical. \n"This is the nature of the beast," he said. "People say they don't want other people to know their information, and that they cherish their privacy, and then they publish everything about themselves on the Web. This is basically the next step -- people what you're doing 24/7, if you let them."\nFor now, he'll keep using the system -- with greater hesitancy than ever.\n"For one, I just hope the cute girl in my accounting class doesn't know I was looking at her pictures for the last half hour," Kloet said.