Going by a recent press release from the office of New York Senator Charles Schumer, the senator has written to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), urging it to promptly address the social-network privacy issue.

Against the backdrop of social network Facebook's new announcements that alter the extent to which member data can be shared with third-party companies, Schumer has asked the FTC to "examine the privacy disclosures of social-networking sites to ensure they are not misleading or fail to fully disclose the extent to which they share information...(and) provide guidelines for use of private information and prohibit access without user permission."

While Facebook public policy representative Andrew Noyes claims that the company's new products and features - announced last week Facebook's annual developer conference in San Francisco - have been designed "to enhance personalization and promote social activity across the Web," Schumer has raised concerns that frequent changes to social-networking privacy policies can be perplexing for users.

Schumer is of the opinion that the increasing popularity of the social networking sites necessitates that the requisite safeguards are "in place", so as to allow users complete control over their personal profiles, to avert unwanted solicitations.

Noting that the FTC currently does not regulate social-networking privacy policies, Schumer's press release further suggested that in case "the FTC believes it does not have the tools or authority to issue guidelines on privacy disclosures, he would be willing to offer legislation."