Room 110 invades York student privacy

Jacqueline Perlin
Recruitment Manager
A recently launched Canadian website allows university students to upload anonymous information and pictures and have them posted online for everyone to view.
According to Derek Paul, a spokesperson for the website, Room 110, it‘s a place for students and individuals to get a glimpse into university life beyond the regular perception of going to class and studying hours on end.
The website has a “York University” section where one can find dozens of pictures and witty captions.
He described the site as “a place where students can go to find out the latest happenings at their own school or schools of their peers. It was designed as a platform where students can post news, gossip, updates about themselves, peers, or current school events.”
Designed by web designers from both Canada and the United States with specific school representatives at each school, the site has grown substantially, with thousands of signups and hundreds of submissions per day, said Paul.
According to a Nov. 17 Ryersonian article and a Nov. 25 piece from The Cord, since the website launched, university officials from several Canadian schools have at- tempted to remove aspects of the website or to shut down the Room 110 entirely.
While Paul said he was unable to name the heads of the schools that have been in contact with the site, he said those people are simply being naive about what really happens at their schools.
“If people don’t want pictures of them drunk and partying put on- line, they shouldn’t take those kind of photos or post those photos of themselves on the internet on other social networking sites,” said Paul.
Kevin Wong, a third-year psychology student, agreed students should be allowed to post whatever they want online.
“People should be allowed to express their opinions and post whatever they want,” said Wong, though first-year political science student Sathyendra Karunakaran argued sending in photos of other students seems like a violation of privacy.
“That’s just taking away their privacy right there, invading their personal life,” said Karunakaran.
Paul, however, defended issues regarding privacy by comparing Room 110 to other social network- ing sites.
“Our site is no different than the gossip you find on Twitter, Facebook or other social networking sites. We just make it easier to browse and give students a safe place to post it, instead of talking trash and being hurtful behind each other’s backs,” said Paul.
When asked about York’s response to Room 110, university’s media relations director, Alex Bilyk, said the website is a private matter which does not concern the university.