Communications


October 27, 2005

From: The University of Virginia Police Department and the Vice President for Student Affairs

To: All Students

The University of Virginia Police Department in conjunction with the Vice President for Student Affairs urge students to use caution when placing personal information on the World Wide Web. Recently it has come to the attention of Police and University administrators that students are using the Facebook or other similar programs as a means to post profiles and other personal information.

Programs like Facebook are resources that allow students to post information about themselves and their friends. However, information of a personal nature makes these programs enticing for predators. For instance, investigators looking into the recent murder of a Virginia Commonwealth University student are exploring the connection between personal information posted on the Web and her murder.

While nothing of this nature has occurred on Grounds, the information posted on Facebook has been used to create threatening situations for U.Va. students who have posted personal information. Before posting information on the Internet, please be aware that the information becomes available to those outside the University community.

Students using these Internet resources to post information are urged to take the following precautions:

   * Avoid posting residential address information.
   * Avoid posting phone numbers.
   * Be selective with the content of personal information that is posted.
   * Be aware that information posted is available to anyone with Internet access.