Sharing Information on Facebook

Save to My Favourites

causing police to close Cowley Road for three hours. Oxford University staff are logging on to Facebook and using evidence they find on student profiles to discipline students. Photos on the social networking website of undergraduates celebrating the end of their exams have been emailed to students by the Proctors, who are Oxford University’s disciplinary body, as evidence of bad behaviour. Some students now face fines of up to £100 after Proctors collected evidence of students celebrating the end of exams by covering their friends with champagne, small pieces of paper, flour and even raw meat and octopus. The students may be unable to graduate from the University until these disciplinary matters are resolved.

Proctors emailed third-year mathematics and philosophy student Alex Hill with links to photographs of her on Facebook on Friday. She has been charged by the Proctors for breaching rules and being disorderly on the basis of this photographic evidence. Alex Hill is angry and confused. Her privacy settings were such that only her friends and other students in her network could view her photos. She feels that the Proctors have violated her privacy by viewing the photos and using them as evidence against her.

Oxford University Student Union has advised students to limit their Facebook privacy settings to friends only, to prevent Proctors viewing their accounts. While the Student Union does not condone unruly, violent or disorderly behaviour, it argues that the privacy of its members should be protected and that disciplinary procedures at all levels within the University should be fair. The Proctors’ actions may not actually breach the terms and conditions of the Facebook website, but they almost certainly breach the ethos of the site as a community for connecting friends. However, a spokesman for Oxford University maintained that the Proctors had warned students not to indulge in antisocial behaviour at the end of their exams. According to the spokesman, the Proctors are prepared to take any steps available to them to identify and discipline the culprits.