When Facebook was created in February 2004, it was a social network for Harvard students. Two months later it had spread to the rest of the Ivy League and by the end of the year, more than 1 million students had registered.

During the next two years, the site underwent several changes. It expanded to include the majority of universities in the United States and eventually began to allow community college students to join. Then it was announced that high school students would have their own version of the site and by the end of 2005, Facebook had grown to include schools from across the globe.

However, the two biggest changes happened in September 2006: The site opened registration to anyone with a valid e-mail address — which created a mild controversy — and the news feed feature was revealed. The latter caused a major uproar in the Facebook community, because people felt that their privacy was being invaded.

On the morning of Sept. 5, the same day that the news feed premiered, Northwestern junior Ben Parr created the group Students Against Facebook News Feed (Official Petition to Facebook).

"I simply saw the News Feed, talked to a few friends online and then made the group and asked them to spread the word, before I left my room for the day," Parr said.

The news feed, which takes up most of the homepage, listed the actions of the user's friends with updates throughout the day. It announced any changes made to their profile, new friends they made and the comments, word-for-word, they left for other friends. Many people felt that it was broadcasting personal information that they'd prefer to keep semi-private.

"I was immediately shocked by how much information news feed gave out, and at the time, I disagreed with the fact that we couldn't change what we wanted shown on news feed," Parr said.

Other users felt the same and Parr's group began to grow at a rate of hundreds of members every minute. It peaked at 750,000.

Facebook responded to this and other similar protests by allowing users to choose which topics they would like to broadcast to their friends. Although there is still not an option to opt out of the entire news feed, most people are satisfied with the changes and feel that their privacy is at least partially protected now. The group membership has dropped to just under 384,000 members.

Although Parr is no longer actively fighting the news feed, he left a message on the group's site assuring those who are interested that the group is still active if they have any concerns. He also said that he has some contact with Facebook and the site is still working to improve privacy controls.

According to recent messages left on the group's board, it appears that additional controls may not be necessary. Several members have posted that the news feed has started to grow on them, yet there are still others who believe that more could be done to protect their privacy.

"Nobody's completely satisfied with the changes; [Facebook] could have done more," Parr said. "It was a good step, and they have shown an interest in keeping privacy a priority. So I'm pleased overall with their response."

Reach reporter Abby Walker at features@thedaily.washington.edu.