PR Week Echo Columns

Used recently by David Cameron to promote Tory policy and Cambridge students to stage a cyber-rebellion against HSBC, social-networking phenomenon Facebook, the "current media obsession du jour" according to John Naughton (Observer, 9 Sept) has opened itself up to accusations of selling out. Its decision to allow access to limited information about its members by popular search engines such as Google and Yahoo is likely to raise a "privacy storm" (The Sun, 5 Sept). Despite reassurances that users can set their own security levels, the news that university authorities and employers have been accessing users' profiles has made Facebook "the most dangerous site on the web" (Peter Thomas, PC Advisor, 8 Sept).

In other news, key workers in hospitals and the police have recently been banned from using the site as part of "ongoing work to monitor internet usage and optimise efficiency" (Medway NHS Trust, BBC News, 5 Sept) although the TUC recently urged employers to resist banning social networking sites. Peninsula, an employment law firm, released a survey showing that Facebook costs companies £132 million every day (clickajob.com, 7 Sept), a fact that shouldn't particularly worry the student population who make up the bulk of its members.