NOTES FROM THE DESK

Author: Andrea Glaessner

Ever since Al Gore invented the Internet, physical interactions have been replaced by electronic transactions. Now college students can even meet and greet friends on the Web thanks to Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg's online social networking solution Facebook.com. On Facebook, not only can you contrive your very own self image on a web page, but you can also spend countless hours reading your friends' contrived images of themselves, and you can poke people, just like you would in real life. Facebook members take gleeful pleasure in posting witty banter or deep sentiments, creating a précis of their lives for all their "facebook friends" to see.

If only it were just Facebook members' friends reading about their interest in "festive greens" and 50 Cent, or viewing that incriminating photo of a beer in one hand and a joint in the other. But Facebook has other members who will never be your facebook friend. These secret members hide behind the scenes, stuffing money into Zuckerberg's pockets in exchange for access to all your willingly provided information.

Your information as a Facebook member is more valuable to the secret members than to your true Facebook friends, and, according to the privacy policy agreed to upon joining, as a member you legally consent to Facebook's right to distribute your information to "responsible companies with whom [they] have a relationship." Jim Breyer of Accel Venture Capital Firm, who served on the National Venture Capital Association's board with a member having ties to the CIA, is one of these secret friends who recently invested $12.7 million in Facebook.

It may be that the government also wants a piece of the pie and a good look at your face. Your Facebook profile is the key to Pandora's box - once accessed, companies know exactly how to target you as a consumer and the government knows exactly where to find you and who to ask need they go looking. Just know that Big Brother is checking you out too, and getting to know your face pretty well in the Orwellian community called Facebook.com.