U. of Kentucky Hopes Facebook Places Sparks Campus-Privacy Conversation

The University of Kentucky is hopping on the geotagging bandwagon, with a new Facebook Places initiative that the institution hopes will start a campus discussion about online privacy.

Facebook Places is a feature that allows registered users to reveal their real-life location by smartphone or laptop, which then appears in their status to all their “friends.” The concept doesn’t stray far from predecessors Gowalla and Foursquare, well, besides Facebook’s 500-million-plus users worldwide.

Kelley Bozeman, Kentucky’s director of marketing, said the social network’s wide appeal is what prompted her to launch a campaign just days after the popular site announced the feature—at the same time the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California released a statement criticizing it for overlooking potential privacy problems.

Now, six wooden pointers resembling the Places logo are scattered through high-traffic areas of the UK campus, reminding students, staff, and faculty to “check in.” UK has a Web site addressing how to adjust Facebook privacy settings and posters on campus repeating the same instructions.

However, the fear still lingers that your mention could be seen by millions if your privacy setting is flipped on the wrong switch, potentially alerting a thief or a stalker to your whereabouts.

“We’re opening the discussion and educating students on how to properly use these tools, when students wouldn’t have gone into Facebook’s information page otherwise,” Ms. Bozeman said. “Being afraid could mean students are missing out on a fun way to be engaged, especially the 4,500 freshmen looking to get acquainted with our community.”

However, students like Andrew Slutzky aren’t entirely convinced. After he had trouble adjusting his privacy settings, the San Diego State University senior recently wrote an op-ed for his college’s newspaper about how Facebook Places oversteps privacy.

Although Mr. Slutzky said the University of Kentucky’s efforts are admirable, his main concern is that Facebook is a business looking to profit—and the information revealed through Places could get in the hands of third-party advertisers.

“If a school has to go that much out of their way to explain how to safely use Facebook Places, it makes me think Facebook is not as transparent as they should be,” he said.