With more than 59 million active users and 250,000 new registrations per day, Facebook has become one of the more dominant social networking sites.

In November, however, Facebook came under fire for the unveiling of its new ad system, Beacon, which ended up sharing more private user information to ad companies like Coca-Cola and Blockbuster than Facebook had intended.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized for Beacon’s intrusiveness on his blog in December.

“We’ve made a lot of mistakes building this feature, but we’ve made even more with how we’ve handled them,” he wrote. “We simply did a bad job with this release, and I apologize for it.”

Corporations and advertising agencies aren’t the only ones who have been using the user information to their advantage, however, as employers and professors alike have begun to capitalize on the social networking site’s success.

One former UW professor admitted to using Facebook to look up a student for a study abroad program. She said she knew of colleagues who do the same.

“I was on the fence about a person that my gut feeling said not to accept; nothing clear really came up in either the application essay or the interview,” she said, asking to remain anonymous.

The nature of the student’s Facebook page ultimately played a role in her decision process.

“The Facebook profile confirmed that this person was extremely party-focused, [with] excessive references to drugs, alcohol and rude sexist jokes, which is not the sort of participant I was looking for.”

Although the former professor believes that universities using such sites can become a “bit Big Brother-ish,” she said students should know that if they post compromising information for millions to see, “it should not come as a shock when that includes prospective employers.”

Senior Rikki Johnson said she didn’t think it was unreasonable for employers to check up on potential hires, but there is the possibility they might misconstrue what they see.

“There’s another girl that goes to UW that has my exact same name — I can’t control what she puts on her profile and she can’t control what I put on mine,” Johnson said. “It’s hard because people don’t really know any background — they just see what’s there and judge from that. … [Facebook sites] shouldn’t be the only grounds that someone is terminated for.”

As a practice, several UW programs include advice about social networking sites in their training, such as Housing and Food Services (HFS).

Tara Miller was a resident advisor for HFS in McMahon last year.

“[HFS] advised us to be smart about what we put on social networking sites and told us to let our residents know about the dangers as well,” Miller said. “[Universities checking up on students is] a part of our culture and our day and age, and even though it may be non-traditional in the past, we need to be aware of it happening.”

HFS Assistant Director Chris Jaehne reiterated the importance of being wary of what may be posted online.

“[Facebook has] been an amazing tool for students to communicate, and we just encourage students to be smart about it,” he said. “We engage them [the RAs] in a conversation about all Internet communications. … it’s about serving as a positive role model.”

Additionally, he said that he makes it clear that while he does not want his staff to scroll through Facebook looking for problems, they do respond to things that are brought to their attention by a third party.

As Facebook continues to evolve and grow, so do new sites designed to counteract damage done by online social networks.

The Web sites DefendMyName.com and ReputationDefender.com both promise to find and delete any possibly harmful images or information that can be found online. Each requires a monthly fee.

After Beacon attracted objections from both users and activist groups such as Center for Digital Democracy and the U.S. Public Interest Research Groups, Facebook engineers created a way for users to turn off Beacon.

Several companies that also use Beacon, like Overstock.com and Travelocity, turned off the feature as well.

The simplest way for students to avoid getting into trouble, Miller said, is to be aware of what they post.

“Facebook [can be a] fun, networking tool,” she said. “I would just advise people not to put anything that you would not want a parent or employer to see.”

[Reach reporter Erika Cederlind at news@thedaily.washington.edu.]