HERE'S why you should be worried about privacy on Facebook.

A team of software engineers and developers in San Francisco has created the ultimate in online voyeurism – a website that lets you search through the status updates of Facebook users all over the world. The site, called Openbook, scours status updates written by people who have not set them to private. At the time of writing, a search for "sad" returns more than two dozen status updates posted within the last 60 seconds, by users located anywhere from the US to the Middle East. For example, one user from Canberra said: "pretty good day today (: bit sad that i cant go to netball :(" Another from Phoenix, Arizona: "Had so much fun at applebee's! hahaha:D tonight was sad but good." The search results show each user's name, photo and a link to their profile alongside the full text of their status and can be filtered to include only men, only women or everyone. Some of the most recent search phrases on the site include "naked pictures", "going to a strip club" and "rectal exam". All three return dozens of results – though they might not be as raunchy as searchers were expecting.

The people behind Openbook say they created the site to draw attention to Facebook's recent controversial privacy changes that mean more of each user's information is set to public by default. "To us, it was immediately clear that many people's privacy was being breached," developer Peter Burns told news.com.au. "But in this raw form it was also clear that only very technical folks would understand what was happening. "Someone has to draw attention to this breach of privacy in a way that people will understand." Mr Burns created the site with fellow Californian geeks Will Moffat and James Home. He said the amount of private information being shared with the world through Facebook status updates was staggering. "We've seen people post their private medical history, their phone numbers, their home addresses, personal tragedies and private moments with loved ones," he said.

Openbook uses the tools Facebook makes available to developers who want to search its data – called APIs – to operate. The site doesn’t "hack" anyone's information, but relies on users forgetting to set their status updates to private. Mr Burns said many people didn't realise their information was public because Facebook didn't make a point of telling them. "They change the rules frequently and give no indication when you're sharing something with the entire planet," he said. And if Openbook seems a bit creepy, Mr Burns said there were worse ways people could take advantage of Facebook's "newly relaxed" privacy settings. "An insurance company could build a database of people engaging in risky behaviour or exhibiting precursors to expensive medical conditions," he said. "(Or) thieves could look for status updates indicating people would be out of town on extended vacations."

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