Facebook has potential to be the penultimate social networking site on the planet. It could also be the most evil website ever created. At this point in time, the site is hovering somewhere in between, in a virtual purgatory that can only be broken out of by the company’s decision to either give in to greed in the name of progress or choose to remove some of its additions and save its metaphorical soul. What follows is a basic crash course on Facebook, its history, issues and future.

In February of 2004 an entrepreneurial young man named Mark Zuckerburg started The Facebook, a website designed to eliminate the need for “facebooks” which used to be a staple for college campuses across the world. Zuckerburg was a student at Harvard University at the time, and with the help of a couple of friends, he managed to enroll over half of Harvard’s students in the site in less than a month.

Following the mass enrollment at Harvard, Zuckerburg and friends soon joined forces with Dustin Moskovitz who helped market the site to Boston University, MIT and Boston College. By the end of March, four of the largest colleges in the United States had massive percentages of their students as members of The Facebook. Within another month, The Facebook had spread to all Ivy League schools as well as some other Northeastern educational institutions. A month later the company of friends moved headquarters to Palo Alto, California. In less than a year The Facebook (which would soon drop “The” from its name) had over 1 million users.

From 2005-2007, Facebook grew by dramatic proportions as major universities and colleges across the country began signing onboard at the insistence of students who had heard of the site and its abilities from friends far and wide. By April 2006 the site reportedly made $1.5 million in revenue per week, based on advertising sales that included product placement and banners that are sparsely used on the site. Technological advances and a simple idea propelled the site from humble beginnings to one of the most influential and prosperous sites in the world.

TechCrunch, a popular web blog, now estimates that 85% of students at supported institutions have a Facebook profile. Of that percentage, 60% log on daily, 85% weekly and 93% monthly. The time spent per user, on average, is slightly above 19 minutes daily. While the numbers show Facebook’s popularity, its history and practices aren’t reflected in the statistics.

One of the biggest concerns revolving around Facebook is its potential for data mining and surveillance. Many critics have been fast to point out that the privacy agreement on the site has umbrella clauses that make it clear that your privacy is a commodity that they are all too willing to sell:

“We may use information about you that we collect from other sources, including but not limited to newspapers and Internet sources such as blogs, instant messaging services and other users of Facebook, to supplement your profile.”

There is even a clause included that states that they may or may not sell your information to third parties they deem respectable:

“We may share your information with third parties, including responsible companies with which we have a relationship.”

Facebook representatives are quick to defend and have publicly stated that data mining and surveillance “for the CIA or any other group” is not happening. They have even promised that the clause concerning privacy and data collection will be removed when they create a new privacy policy. There is no word yet if they will be removing the third party clause.

In February of 2006 the site opened itself to high school students and soon after that anyone could join. Some college students considered this a degrading act, as a “facebook” is exclusive to universities and colleges (not to mention a few major corporations). The move, while well-responded to, was greatly overshadowed by the addition of two new features which some believe was Facebook’s greatest mistake.

The introduction of two new additions to the site, the News Feed and Mini-Feed, was immediately met with resistance. College students and members across the country realized that Facebook had taken it one step too far. In the beginning of development, the News Feed and Mini-Feed listed literally everything that a person did on the site and made it public to anyone who had been listed as a friend to that person. Changes in sexual preference, comments on other’s walls and even the removal of certain elements on a person’s profile became a part of the News Feed and obliterated any semblance of privacy. Facebook had overnight become a stalker’s paradise.

The Facebook membership was quick to act, and groups began appearing within hours asking for the new additions to either be removed or modified so that they weren’t so revealing. Within a week, Facebook had taken the new features and put new restrictions on them that solved some of the problems; however, the News Feed and Mini-Feed still remain a bone of contention among a large percentage of members. Because there has yet to be an option that allows turning the features off, it has prompted a Facebook Group called Students Against Facebook News Feed which has over 740,000 members.

Teachers and administrators alike originally took a stance against Facebook, citing that it was a distraction in the classroom. Many students in wireless classrooms can be found perusing the site while ignoring the class instruction. By 2005 multiple colleges even blocked the site from their servers. But colleges and universities soon realized that Facebook could be used to their advantage.

Colleges, universities, local police and even federal investigators have begun using Facebook as an investigation tool. It began simply enough: if you threatened to kill or harm a public official or a member of the school faculty, the CIA would be at your door within days. But eventually the possibilities grew. Facebook is its own photo-sharing site which allows students to incriminate themselves by way of alcohol presence and even drugs can be found in certain images. Universities began to penalize, suspend and in some instances fine students for alcohol violations. At the University of Miami, if you print a photo depicting a violation and hand it in to the Dean, you can seek revenge against a fellow classmate. The school even had policy catfight when sororities and fraternities used this ability to have other groups banned from festivities in which they wanted to gain prominence.

Abusing the system doesn’t stop with schools but has also reached into the job market. It has been estimated that 1 out of 5 employers now search Facebook for information on potential job candidates and have even cited the information found as reasons for not hiring someone. This prompted the site to allow users to block anyone not listed as a friend, but some say it is too late. A smart programmer can create script that downloads thousands of profiles and pictures at the touch of a button. This was proven by a college student who did that exact thing and found himself with very personal information concerning 70,000 students in the Northeast.

Facebook now has over 250 employees and is the subject of constant rumors concerning buyouts. Critics believe that the sale of the site would allow all information that has already been entered to be sold to the highest bidder. In September of 2006 Yahoo offered $1 billion for the site but the deal fell through. Rumors in October of the same year had it that Google had made a bid of $2.3 billion but nothing ever came of it. The most recent rumor, started in July of 2007, was that Microsoft was trying to purchase the social networking site for an amazingly high sum of $6 billion. So far insiders have remained quiet on buyouts, but one representative believes the current in-house value is closer to the $8 billion dollar ballpark.

In three years, Facebook has managed to sign up 30 million users, gaining 4 million new users per month and an estimated 150,000 per day. The site is ranked the 5^th most trafficked site in the U.S., with 15 billion page views per month. For Facebook to continue its growth, it will have to step into the global market and begin sites overseas. As for now, users are beginning to question if their information is safe and if they’ve unwillingly sold their personal lives into a major databank which can be sold for billions of dollars. One thing is clear: Facebook either can sell out and give its users to a large corporation on a silver platter, or it can scale back its growth and continue in the same vein. Users have the right to leave the site at any time, but in true social networking fashion, leaving the site still leaves a major trail of paperwork and photographs. Perhaps the world has waited too long to question something that seemed too good from the very beginning.