By Ben Fractenberg
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN— Sen. Chuck Schumer has lashed out at Facebook for allegedly selling user profile information to third parties.
Schumer (D-NY) wants the Federal Trade Commission to offer up guidelines that social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, would be forced to follow before giving away private information.
His calls came on the back of reports that the popular site is selling information to third parties without users necessarily being aware.
"Now, all of a sudden with rules changing there are lots of things that you may have never wanted to go beyond your family and friends but do," explained Sen. Charles Schumer, (D) New York.
The wants Facebook to give users the option of choosing new policies rather than having to change their privacy setting after the fact.
"This opt out procedure is confusing, unclear, and you might even say hidden," Schumer said in a letter to the FTC.
Facebook responded to Schumer’s requests by saying user privacy is their top concern.
"We were surprised by Sen. Schumer's comments and look forward to sitting down with him and his staff to clarify,” Facebook public policy communications manager Andrew Noyes told WABC New York.
“Facebook's highest priority is to keep and build the trust of the more than 400 million people who visit our service every month.”
