The contentious privacy policies of the popular social networking site Facebook came to the fore yet again when, in their recent open letter, privacy and civil liberties groups urged the company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg to address issues that violate the privacy rights of the over 400 million users of the site.

Though the letter - signed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Northern California, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the Center for Democracy and Technology, and the Center for Digital Democracy – lauded Facebook’s recent attempts towards making privacy-setting changes easier for users, it also said that some more measures need to be taken to further address the issue.

The groups suggested that Facebook should also allow users to control all the information they share on Facebook, as well as make it easier not only to export the information, but also to quit Facebook.

Moreover, to further strengthen privacy protections, the groups suggested that the Instant Personalization pilot program, which shares users’ information with select third-party sites, should be made an “opt-in” feature.

Highlighting the need for more privacy measures, the EFF’s senior staff attorney Kevin Bankston said: “Facebook continues to push its users into more and more public sharing — sharing that it's not at all clear members want or fully understand. We're calling on Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg to respect their members and give them the information and the tools they need for true control.”