One of my best friends recently told me a Facebook horror story that completely changed my attitude about the site. She Googled herself one day and was disgusted to find that the first hit that showed up was a chatroom moderated by two users who were taking her Facebook profile pictures and sharing them with the entire group. A few users waited all week long for new pictures of her and posted grotesque and sexually suggestive comments that I feel uncomfortable repeating in this article. My friend was so freaked out that she had her parents call the police and begin an ongoing investigation to try to remove the chatroom. Now she's afraid that potential employers will search her, find the pictures and comments, and judge her based on them.

My friend's story is one of the more extreme examples of privacy violation, yet it offers a cautionary tale about what can be done with our Facebook information.

Anyone you accept as a "friend" has access to your pictures and can do whatever they like with them.

Many of us know this in the back of our minds but don't do anything about it. The only case in which I have ever "blocked" a Facebook friend was when I found out that my aunt was tattling to my mother about my party pictures.

However, after hearing my friend's story and those of the recent events involving Facebook's skirmish with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, I realize it should not just be these kinds of enemies we should be worried about.

Users should be cautious of both untrustworthy "friends" and of the administrators of the site itself.

The Federal Trade Commission recently found Facebook in violation of a number of privacy laws and leveled an eight-count complaint against the company in regards to its nonchalant views toward privacy laws. The case found that despite Facebook's assurances of confidentiality to users, the company shared information it had promised to keep private with third-party companies in order to sell advertising space.

No charges were made, and the two entities arrived at a settlement.

Now, Facebook must be reviewed every two years by the FTC for the next two decades, and each violation found could subject the company to a daily fine of $16,000 until the infraction is resolved.

My personal favorite part of the otherwise dry report is that it ends by urging readers to "like" the FTC on Facebook and to follow them on Twitter.

Facebook has, is and always will be dependent on the money it gains from advertising, and the FTC agreement details its privacy agreement with Facebook as in effect for the next twenty years. We've all heard the scare-stories that companies are data-mining practically all of the information that you put online and will have access to it even after you delete your account.

This settlement essentially verified that fact.

With all of this information about privacy violations emerging, why do people still trust Facebook? The site changes its layout and features all the time without any forewarning to users, and this settlement only feeds the notion that Facebook only cares about its infringements in a retroactive manner. Pretty much any privacy infringement Facebook causes is solved by an apology in a Mark Zuckerberg blog post.

The fact of the matter is that, until a brighter and shinier form of social media comes around, Facebook will hold onto its undeniable monopoly.

Twitter and MySpace are legitimate alternatives, but they are nowhere close to competing with Facebook.

And, let's be honest, how many of us actually make good on our resolutions to finally delete our accounts because Facebook violates our privacy, sucks away our time and judges our personal worth by the number of "friends" we accumulate? Our generation has got it bad for Facebook.

Don't get me wrong—I use the site almost every day, and I don't plan on deleting my account.

It's a great way to share photo albums and keep in touch with friends studying abroad. I keep my privacy settings secure and try to avoid looking like a drunk college student in every picture I upload. But being careful isn't always enough.

There's no reason why we should blindly trust the site like we do.

Facebook users should keep in mind the plain fact that the site is not your friend. It is a business first and foremost, despite the array of smiling familiar faces that greet you every time you log on.

Plus, anyone can use Facebook, and so anyone can use Facebook against you.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't post anything ever again, but definitely don't post a picture or status that you wouldn't want anyone in particular to see.

Putting pictures on Facebook is essentially sending your private information out into the unknown.

Of course you trust your friends, but by allowing everyone to see all the pictures you took at that frat party last weekend, you are surrendering your private control of those pictures to the public.

The police told my friend that one of her Facebook friends must have downloaded the pictures from her profile and uploaded that to the chatroom.

I think about what happened to her almost every time I log onto Facebook now, and I can't help but think, as I scroll suspiciously down my news feed, what kind of "friends" are these, anyway?