I vote that instead we make blind people wear red flashing lights on their heads so electric car drivers will be able to spot them more easily as they nonchalantly amble into the road.

Woosh! (Or should that be Flash?)

By default your profile is visible to your friends only. There is an option to extend this to "friends of friends" but there is no "show to everyone" privacy option. This is why I don't understand this claim that recruiters can check out your Facebook page, unless they happen to be on your friends list, in which case they probably know you anyway, so won't be needing this info in the first place.

If you're not friends [of friends] with someone, then all you can see is their profile picture, their name and their list of friends. So unless your profile pic is particularly embarassing / unprofessional then you have little to worry about with respect to what you're making available to random people, such as recruiters.

How were you able to see a potential employee's Facebook profile without already being friends with them?

I agree with you in pricipal, but in practise you are overlooking one thing - Facebook does what it does so much better than any site before it. Compare it to MySpace and it is not difficult to see why it is now the defacto site as MySpace slides into its inevitable decline.

While it is possible that another site could implement these same features, or more, and perhaps even better, the traction that Facebook now has with its (well deserved) incumbency means that IMO the likelihood of its demise is small.

It's a sad state of affairs that an act such as the Read the Bills act is even necessary.

But when they came for the porn, the people cried out with one voice united?

On Facebook you control who can view your profile by (in theory) allowing only people you trust to have access. By default, the most you can see about someone you are not friends with is their main profile picure, their network, and their list of friends (though this can also be disabled through your provacy options of you so wish).

Furthermore, every time someone tags a photo of you, you receive a notification telling you so, and you are free to (permanently) remove this tag if you so wish.

So as far as I see it, a college should have very little chance of obtaining information on you through your Facebook profile unless you specifically grant them this privilege.