Some Rotorua residents may boycott Facebook after it was revealed people could soon be caught snooping on other people's Facebook pages.
The social networking site has announced that it will soon let users see who has been snooping through their pages. The move is expected to dramatically cut the browsing habits of hundreds of millions of users.
The change to the website - which has more than 900 million members - applies to group pages; meaning users can see who has visited any group which they are a member of.
Rumours are circulating on Facebook and Twitter that the site will enable the function on personal profiles as well as groups and pages. The website giant hasn't yet announced how the information will be shown on the site.
Each day, more than 250 million photos are uploaded to Facebook and 526 million people log in, up 41 per cent from a year ago.
A recent UMR survey showed that 54 per cent of New Zealanders had signed up to the site, which is up from 14 per cent just five years ago.
It has also been found that one in five New Zealanders have no problem logging on to social networking sites while at work.
The UMR survey - which had 3500 respondents - found Facebook to be one of the most popular sites to log on to while at work.
The majority of respondents to a Daily Post poll said the Facebook changes would alter their browsing habits. Forty per cent of people said they wouldn't snoop on other people's profiles, while 23 per cent said they didn't care who saw what profiles and pages they looked at. The remaining 37 per cent said their habits would change depending on why they were looking at a particular page or profile.
Comments made on The Daily Post Facebook page suggested the changes would reduce the amount of time they spent on the social network.
Comments included:
"I wudnt b so nosey nemre lol jj."
"I don't look at profile pages unless I'm looking for something in particular; phone number, email address etc. So it doesn't bother me. I don't see the point of having this ability though to be honest ..."
"Another reason to quit fb. However in saying that, i already know who "stalks" my page so it would be a laugh."
Netsafe director Martin Cocker said looking through people's photos and keeping tabs on other people's lives - through social networking sites - was something many people did.
He said the move to allow people to see who had been looking through their page was to be praised, as it added a level of transparency to the site.
"I don't think adding that functionality is creepy ... I can't see any particular safety concerns," Mr Cocker said.
"A lot of people use Facebook as a tool to check up on people they might not want to check up on directly.
"I can see why Facebook is doing it ... Facebook constantly explores the boundaries."