New Facebook Location Feature Sparks Privacy Concerns

Moments after Facebook introduced a new feature called Facebook Places on August 18 that allows its users to share their location and find their friends, advocates raised flags over online privacy.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California cited concerns over the new product, saying Facebook neglected to include several crucial privacy features. The organization highlighted the element of the new service that allows users to "tag" an accompanying friend and post his or her location to Facebook - even if the friend does not have an iPhone, which is currently the only platform on which the application is available.

"Places allows your friends to tag you when they check in somewhere, and Facebook makes it very easy to say 'yes' to allowing your friends to check in for you," ACLU said. "But when it comes to opting out of that feature, you are only given a 'not now' option. 'No' isn't one of the easy options."

The ACLU also expressed concern over the integration of Facebook's Places feature with third-party Web sites and applications.