Facebook, Personal Data | featured news

...And now, with Facebook’s newfangled search tool, it can allow strangers, along with “friends” on Facebook, to discover who you are, what you like and where you go. Facebook insists it is up to you to decide how much you want others to see. And that is true, to some extent. But you cannot entirely opt out of Facebook searches. Facebook, however, does let you fine-tune who can see your “likes” and pictures, and, to a lesser extent, how much of yourself to expose to marketers.

Facebook took steps to simplify its privacy settings, in its latest bid to give consumers more control and clarity over what personal information is shared.

Facebook users have until 3 p.m. ET/noon PT on Dec. 10 to cast their votes on changes proposed to the social network's data use policy and statement of rights and responsibilities — among them, the very right of Facebook users to vote on policy.

Facebook users' personal information could have been accidentally leaked to third parties, in particular advertisers, over the past few years, according to Symantec Corp's official web blog.

A Facebook engineer said that some applications were passing along personal data in a violation of policy.