When college junior Amanda Dewundara logged onto Facebook.com yesterday morning, she quickly learned which friend broke up with a boyfriend, who declined what party invitation and what all her freshman buddies took pictures of during New Student Orientation.
And that was only from her homepage.
Facebook added two new tracker devices - News Feed and Mini-Feed - to the social networking site as of midnight yesterday.
And while the Facebook Web site boasts that "this is a major product announcement for Facebook and the first time News Feed technology will be used in social networking," many students - and some privacy experts - have been put off by the recent so-called advancements.
These updates "highlight how vulnerable people's privacy is on Facebook in the first place," said Sherwin Siyof the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington, D.C.-based research center focused on protecting individuals' privacy.
"Once you digitalize information about yourself, that information will have a life of its own and may be used in ways you might not have anticipated," Siy added.
And some users, once eager to share personal information with the digital world, are uncomfortable with the new features.
"I think it's really creepy and stalker-ish," said College sophomore Denise Bailey-Castro. "I don't care if you decline to join a group or if you're single now."
Bailey-Castro added that she thought the new feature is an invasion of privacy.
But according to Facebook spokeswoman Melanie Deitch, the site's new components aren't really doing anything new.
"Both products will only display content that users can already see by navigating through the site," Deitch noted.
"One of our commitments is to make it as easy and as efficiently as possible for people to get information about people around them. News Feed and Mini-Feed are great features that make this easier."
Deitch added that the site's new features are permanent, and will not be removed despite "vocal feedback."
News Feed appears on each user's homepage as a constantly updated list of "stories" about the user's friends. Users are alerted to everything from friends' newly joined Facebook groups to recently tagged photos to changes in favorite television shows.
Similar to News Feed, Mini-Feed tracks the activity of one person on his or her profile page.
However, unlike News Feed - which cannot be removed from a user's homepage, and which will automatically trail users' every move - Mini-Feed can be edited. Users can opt not to have their minute updates monitored on their own profile pages.
And despite negative user feedback, officials at Facebook say they expect users to have certain understandings in mind when joining the site.
"If you don't want anyone to ever see your information, you shouldn't be on Facebook," said Deitch.
Facebook's privacy settings have not changed, and members can still control who has access to their profiles.
In the meantime, some students who don't want to reveal the extent of their time spent on Facebook plan to edit their profiles less frequently - that is, once they can figure out how to maneuver the new site.
"I didn't quite get it right away when I checked [Facebook] this morning, but I'll definitely be updating my profile less," Bailey-Castro said.
