Content Analysis Body Paragraph Draft

        The most prominent controversy surrounding Facebook is whether or not it has the tendency to invade its users’ privacy, or it is used as a means to invade one’s privacy.  While some say that people who are willing to post personal information on a website have given up their rights to privacy, where is the line?  For example, a New York Times article discussed how after a huge user uprising, Facebook agreed to cut back the invasiveness of its new program, Beacon.  Beacon is a program commonly used by other sites such as Google or AOL to track where its users are going online, and send ads based on visited sites.  Facebook took it to another level, sending user’s friends information based on sites they’ve used.  In one case, a gift was ruined because Facebook advertised that a user had bought a game, and the person the game was intended for saw the announcement.  Until users protested, there was no box on Facebook to option out of the service.  Another case where user protest caused Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg to tone down aspects of his site was the Newsfeed, introduced in 2006, which made announcements as to what one was doing on Facebook to all of the user’s friends.  As time passed, people grew more accustomed to the application, but at first many were outraged at how it invaded their privacy by reporting their actions.  The way Facebook is used has also been a concern for users.  In a recent survey, 42% of students believed that it was a violation of privacy for potential employers to use Facebook to check on people actions and screen them before hiring.  Most college students post pictures on the site, and many pictures show underage drinking and other various activities, both legal and illegal.  Is it possible to say that information that one willingly posts on the internet should not be considered in a hiring decision?  Either way, Facebook has made it more difficult to keep one’s personal life just that; personal.