Senator joins call for Facebook scrutiny

A US Senator is looking to grill Facebook over its privacy policies

A senior member of the US Senate has become the latest prominent person to raise objections to Facebook's privacy policy and handling of user information.

Senator Charles Schumer of New York called for the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to look into the company's plans to open up to third-party sites.

Schumer is asking the FTC to investigate the privacy practices of Facebook and other social networks.

Additionally, he is recommending that the FTC mandate an "opt in" system in which users must expressly provide consent before a social networking site can share any information online.

"As these sites become more and more popular it is vitally important that safeguards are in place that provide users with control over their personal information to ensure they don't receive unwanted solicitations," Schumer said.

"At the same time, social networking sites need to provide easy-to-understand disclosures to users on how information they submit is being shared."

Schumer's remarks come as Facebook faces increased scrutiny of its plans, most notably the Graph API system which allows third-party sites to access user content and personalise pages based on Facebook data.