Keith N Hampton

In a followup to last week\’s posting on mobile phones and surveillance of personal networks, I was forwarded an article from the Penn State Digital Collegian on how Facebook is being used by campus police to identify students who \”rushed the field\” after a recent football game (as a Canadian not having experienced college football, I have no idea why this is illegal). Penn State has the largest number of students on facebook (52,016 students) and apparently a significant number had posted pictures of themselves and friends (often taken with mobile phones) on the field after the game. Students appear legitimately surprised that police and university administrators would access the site and view profiles that were \”only meant for fellow students\”. One of my undergrads recently pointed out to me just how much information people post on facebook about themselves. In particular she noted that student journalists regularly entered their political affiliation as part of their profile, she wondered how these future \”objective\” reporters would react when someone produced copies of their facebook profiles (from when they were in college) in response to an article. This also brought up memories of two recent articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education warning graduate students of the dangers of blogging, Google searches and being on the academic job market (article 1, article 2). Regarding the football game, according to the article, students found guilty could face up two years in jail, up to $2,000 in fines, and discipline from the university.