Facebook oversharing is dangerous

The sense of college is invoked when certain words are uttered. Degree. Campus. Quad. Facebook.

The social networking giant is having a banner year. It surpassed more than 500 million active users this year, and the Aaron Sorkin movie documenting its founding debuts in two weeks. All is well in Facebook land, right? Wrong.

With the addition of Facebook Places, Facebook’s own location-based network, the social networking site’s privacy woes grew even larger. Not only can you now see where your friends went to party Friday night via their pictures, videos, wall posts and comments, but now you can actually see when they check-in, stop studying and join them. Sounds awesome, right?

It is. It’s in the vein of other location-based social networks, primarily Foursquare, which provides its users with incentives like badges and mayorships for checking in a certain number of times in a time period or checking into a location repeatedly. The idea isn’t a bad one, but the execution is.

I like Facebook Places and Foursquare a lot. Perhaps I’m a nerd who just likes telling people where I am and making them feel guilty for staying in their dorm. But I’m also into common sense.

I never check into a location-based social network with a location too specific. When I’m checking into my dorm, I check into the building, not my room number. When I’m in the Reitz Union, I’ll check into the Reitz Union and not the restaurant or ballroom I’m in.

Why care so much? The New York Times reported Sunday three burglars robbed houses based on Facebook updates. Nothing else. Not unlocked front doors or anything that would traditionally lead to a robbery.

So should an Average Joe or Jane stay off Facebook Places and Foursquare? Of course not. But the key is to use common sense and ensure where you’re checking in is large enough or vague enough to ward off potential criminals who may be interested in your stuff or, worse, you. Just like you wouldn’t tag yourself in a picture of a keg stand before your professional interview, you shouldn’t be checking in at an incredibly detailed locations.

I know it’s funny to change your roommate’s profile picture or update his or her status with something ridiculous when they’re out of the room or away from the keyboard, but location-based social networking status-update abuse (a mouthful, eh?) should be considered a major-league party foul.

You might as well take a megaphone, go to the Plaza of the Americas and scream out your roommate’s name, date of birth, major, debit card information, UF ID number and social security number. You’re putting your roommate and yourself at risk.

Don’t allow anyone to update location-based social network check-ins or places but yourself. It’s a simple rule that saves a lot of headaches, fights and embarrassment in the future.

Now my only wish is the characters in “The Social Network,” Aaron Sorkin’s movie about Facebook, would check in at some of those parties in the commercial. Those seem pretty sick.

Sean Quinn is a first-year political science student. His column appears every Wednesday.