PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Privacy advocates including the ACLU of Northern California say a Facebook application called Facebook Places lacks adequate privacy protections.
The feature, which Facebook unveiled Wednesday, allows users to track and share locations of friends but it forces users to opt out of the service instead of allowing them to opt in, Computer World reported.
"The fact that it's turned on by default really ticks me off as a user," Brad Shimmin, an analyst at Current Analysis, told Computer World. "They keep requiring users to jump over hoops to protect themselves."
He argued the privacy settings are confusing, making it difficult to opt out.
The ACLU of Northern California said in a statement Facebook failed to offer key privacy safeguards.
"In the world of Facebook Places, 'no' is unfortunately not an option," the statement said. "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. 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."
Barry Schnitt, a spokesman for the social network, defended privacy safeguards on the new feature, which allows users to share their locations and track and share friends' locations.
"Facebook Places sets a new standard for user control and privacy protection for location information," he said in a statement.
