Consumer Reports: Facebook users more wary of sharing information

Facebook is about to share a whole lot of information about itself as it pitches potential investors on its initial public stock offering coming in May. But users of the popular website are becoming more wary about how much information they share with Facebook, says a new study from Consumer Reports that asked Facebook users in the United States what steps they took to protect their privacy on the world's largest social network.

About a quarter of the users surveyed admitted they made up information about themselves. Consumer Reports said that’s double the number who said they did that two years ago, a finding that it says signals that users have become more guarded. Consumers Union, the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports, is using the June issue of the magazine to push for a national privacy law that would give consumers control over companies tracking them online. Facebook has more than 150 million users in the US. Consumer Reports says it's urging Facebook to make it clearer to users how to protect their information. But the study also found that the majority of U.S. Facebook users have adjusted their privacy settings, only about 13 million have not, which would seem to indicate that Facebook users are taking control of their privacy on the site. Facebook insists that it offers users extensive tools to control their privacy.