Though this is a privacy breach, it keeps the sexual predators and stalkers at bay. It pisses me off that I'm being spied on, but at the same time I just...don't...care...

When are they going to have an app for that?

OMG OMG OMG. Just kidding, admins at most social networking sites can view any data they like, especially if they have database access. Most (myself included) won't for ethical reasons and because it's not that interesting.

The real lesson here - don't get involved with an employee. I was a little upset when Brad searched the LiveJournal database to see all my emo rants.

Is it more of an issue that a Facebook employee can see what pages you look at? How else do they get those stats (that the business wankers love) about how much you check the site?

It's less the "they can technically do it" and more the "let's look at private data to kill our lunch hour!"

Also the "gee, hope this doesn't jeopardize our ten-billion-dollar buyout and number-one status!"

The help section used to answer the question "Can others know when I view their profiles?" with a simple and explicit "No." Now they have a complicated two-paragraph explanation.

Also, the "How do I deactivate my account?" question is sort of confusing.

"Deactivation will completely remove your profile and all associated content on your account from Facebook. In addition, users will not be able to search for you or view any of your information. If you reactivate your account, your profile will be restored in its entirety (friends, photos, interests, etc.)."

The first sentence makes it sound like they'll delete your data, but the second one says they'll keep it.

Or...

How about idiots stop signing up for a marketing research site under the guise of a "networking site."

And stop participating in completely fake relationships, that are substituting for being an actual human being towards others.

I mean like, I had no idea! Who would ever have thought this would happen?
It's not like the employees were real live people!
The Google web spider doesn't look at people's perverted sites.

I think Facebook SHOULD designate certain people to handle law enforcement matters and have access on viewing those specific details and not just any schmuck that has an employee access.

Sigh, I did have misgivings before making a Facebook account. I think I'll migrate back to a slightly more private (marginally) way of communication. Don't mind at all not being able to talk with people I lost in touch a while back (not that I added back most of them anyway :-D)

What law enforcement matters? Stay off my Facebook profile, creepy geeks!

I want to know whose profiles Mikey Arrington checks out.

creepy creeperton

Facebook seems like an application that if you don't want other people to read it, you shouldn't post it. And if you are stalking some girl/guy, well, just hope they don't work for Facebook.

Yeah. But I agree with Nick. They shouldn't sit around yucking it up during lunch.

oh no people can see the private information i put out on the internet

I can't think of any other service that when you cancel your account promises to keep it around for a later re-activation. Most such systems in fact promise to delete your data and make it clear that you can't ever get it back. Seems to me like this latter approach is what most people would want and expect.

There really doesn't seem to be a whole lot of "Do no evil" in Facebook's design. Maybe that had something to do with who's money they decided to take.

It seems pretty obvious how the "Facebook employees" caught the person who sent you Ballmer's profile? He included personal information in the picture! (You know what it was, because it's since been erased... but not before it made it into the RSS feeds)

Well, what creeps me out is that the Facebook employee actually called this person to directly ask why she was looking at his profile. By doing so, isn't he abusing his position at Facebook, because he's using his access for personal reasons?

In his talk at Stanford's Tech Ventures Program, Mark Zuckerberg indicated that Facebook could predict at a certain rate if two people would start dating within a certain amount of time. It's been like a year since I listened to the talk, so I don't remember the details, but I always assumed they had left behind these silly privacy infringing games.

as one who's had his facebook account suspended more than once (posting a link more than a couple of times to people who weren't in my friend group - funnily enough about Apple guff) and subsequently trying to get it re-instated I would have to say that any company that hides behind answer phone systems is going to get fecked big time unless it pulls it's finger out. In my case I had a phone number that only happened to be in my facebook email inbox that was crucial to me...4 days and god knows how much in phone bills ad time I somehow got my account back...talk about BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU!

Facebook has the potential to be a truly truly massive company - but any company that is, to all intents and purposes, unreachable and ergo "unaccountable" ain't gonna make it. They need to get some upper management who understands what accountability is all about.

my 2 cents

  Links For Beautiful Boys and Girls by Alex Carnevale  Grey’s Anatomy rolls on, unimpeded by the fact that its storylines are exhausted by the inevitability of everyone sleeping with everyone.

My biggest concern isn't that Facebook can check on you etc., but that this person was doing it for fun.

When I applied for a job at FB, I knew they viewed my profile because they told me so in the interview. It certainly wouldn't surprise me that they'd have access; how else would they be able to resolve profile-related issues or identify suspect content? There are 300 employees at Facebook; that's not a whole lot of people that can view your profile.

However, I'd be concerned if my Facebook-employed friends started asking me why I viewed their profiles.

Incidentially, people don't know this but Newsfeed works by identifying profiles you are interested in, and then providing you with updates about them. They do this for the purpose of keeping newsfeed relevant to you. But of course in order to do so they have to keep statistics as to who you're interested in seeing stories about; otherwise this wouldn't work.

The breach of privacy isn't seeing your profile or knowing who's profile you visit; it's using that information for purposes other than professional ones.

To reiterate for those who saw the headline and jumped down to comment: RTFA.

And people ask me why I don't have a facebook account yet. This says it all. I don't care if its just Facebook employees knowing your private details but I still don't like people snooping around my profile.

An e-mail I was told I could reprint here:

"I am a FB employee and can tell you that the article is wrong for the most part. Most FB employees have the same access to your profiles as everyone else and cannot see anything more than that. Only the select few have full access including those on the security staff and the higher ups.

I believe that internally some employees might also be able to see who views their profiles (but nothing more than that). These are usually the same employees whose profiles do not allow you to add them as a friend unless they add you ( i.e. Executive staff etc)."

I know this is unrelated but since this is the most recent update I just had to repost what is on calacanis for posterity:

"last night at 9:33PM--while I was doing Kanye West's STRONGER at the Mahalo karaoke party--"

Holy fucking lol jesus christ the mental image in my head is amazing dear valleywag someone had to have a camera phone please find a video of this

Friendster allows anyone to see whos checking your profile. But if a Facebook employee tells someone why is someone checking him out... Thats not cool..

@Dweezil: I was all "what point is there in life, and what good has this article done the world?" but then you made me imagine Jason Calacanis trying to rap "Stronger" and probably introducing it with "This is by my man Kanye," and I imagined Conrad Quilty-Harper clapping on the downbeat, and I regathered my strength and housed and fed the entire population of the alley behind my house. Tomorrow I'm running for mayor. THANK YOU DWEEZIL YOU TRANSFORM LIVES

I it's always kinda creeped me out how much Facebook shows that the have complete control over facebook. Like they do things like control what actually shows up in your personal and public news feed!

Damn! Now that short dweeb with the Lou Albino goatee will know I've been stalking him.

@leahculver: you hit the nail on the head. same thing goes with email admins. We can look, but don't because its unethical and you are boring.

Here's a question: who would want to work at Facebook? I suppose I can see the financial appeal (like most of my financial predictions, my belief that those billions of value will never become liquid will surely turn out to be wrong), but you'd really have to be odd (at best) to believe you were doing anything remotely productive with your time.

So Nick old boy

" Only the select few have full access including those on the security staff and the higher ups"

I challenge you to name those "higher ups" in facebook who have this access - geez, trying to find out any info about your company is almost impossible through the net. Post a link where we can find the executive members of facebook and how we can contact them. Is there a Palo Alto number that doesn't go to an answer machine?

I love facebook but I hate the fact that the people working for it appear to be faceless (yourself excluded).....looking forward to your reply

@leahculver: I agree with you 100%. I remember a little while ago I was talking to Kris Tate and he was saying what I was searching for and other things on Zooomr. However, Kris doesn't go around searching what his users are doing just because he can. Most of it is boring, and it's generally understood that it's not really *nice*. It's true of any social network that they can look at whatever the hell they want. If Vimeo wanted to the could take control of my account and make a comment that said "I like to eat poo".. but they won't. :)

@Media_LUSH

Simple google search shoes how that finding out FB's executive lineup is super easy.

[www.insidefacebook.com]

Just wait for my commercials to air. 20 something kids looking at all that data, tsk, tsk, tsk. What a shame that MS decided to jump into the sandbox. This is only the tip of the iceberg, or should I say "FaceBerg...." Given other statements they've made on privacy, this isn't suprising. How many other places have these "kids" worked? Probably not a lot. @leahculver uses the honor system. That's great, but it doesn't give a lot of assurance if there's isn't an audit or encryption structure involved. This scene is ripe for a sea change.

Another example of why you should never do anything online you don't want someone else to know about. You just never know who is watching.

@media_lush: Uh, try here the exec bio page here maybe: [www.facebook.com]

You want to contact them? Try sending them a message on, you know, Facebook.

Oh My God
I just saw the matrix today
creepy

Out of curiosity, how did Gawker respond to the cease and desist letter?

@Galls: I hate to be the advocate of huge billion-dollar web 2.0 shysters here, but you strike me as the sort of person who corners people in parties and recites uncredited Bill Hicks routines for twenty minutes straight.

Uh, this kind of happens on EVERY webs community you join. There are two official titles for people who have access to your profiles: "monitors" and "moderators". I have no doubt that even these Gawker Media sites have people to do this. For one thing, they NEED to be able to see everything you do and say. If they ban your account, they would need proof as to why they've done so.

On the other hand, and as others have already mentioned, calling people up personally, especially when they have no business-related reason for doing so is pretty damned shady.

Well the Valley is up in arms after Valleywag reported that Facebots are snooping on users just to entertain themselves. Some of us are still trying to get our heads around the idea that Valleywag is pretending to be outraged at the idea of someone snooping into the private affairs of other people.

Why would I want to belong to a web community that doesn't supervise these things? Look at the flaming going on on YouTube and the rather disastrous monitoring MySpace has grown through. I'd err on the side of being monitored and just behave as I would offline, i.e. - not be creepy. As for employees getting their yucks over users at lunch, well what else do you expect? Ethics are not about what you know about people, they're about what you do (and don't do) when a judgment call needs to be made, and we should all remember that the Internet is still a very new social space, and we figure out how to handle it through trial and error. And no, I am in no way affiliated with Facebook, other than that I have an account.

@media_lush: are you joking or do you really think Nick works for Facebook?

One thing that should be obvious to all of us FB users is that without an explicit and strong set of internal controls, and transparent accountability, there are soon going to be options for unscrupulous FB employees to sell their access to FB info to the highest bidder.

We see this happen all the time with public databases (like the DMV). Rarely (if ever) are the corrupt employees caught.

While the scope of access to private databases is usually smaller, there are far fewer penalties for bad actors.

First it is cameras in the street to spy on the citizens with the tag line 'If you are not doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about.; Now it is the people at facebook spying on us...and I am waiting for them to say 'If you are not doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about.'

Well I am doing nothing wrong, however I do not want anyone watching me.

I have to ask anyone that says that they don't mind the cameras if they would feel the same way if there was a camera pointed at there house that was monitored by the local government? Or maybe google earth watching you for a year?

Either way it is wrong and either should be clearly stated in the EULA or on there homepage.