Sen. Charles Schumer is raising privacy concerns over social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

He’s urging the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to provide guidelines for social networking sites on how private information can be used and disseminated. The call comes after recent reports that Facebook has decided to provide user data to select third party websites.

Previously, users had the ability to determine what information they chose to share and what information they wanted to keep private. The recent policy changes have now begun to transform the relationship between users and networking sites.

In a Sunday press release, Schumer demanded more guidance on what social networking sites can and cannot do, and what disclosures are necessary for consumers. He also urged the FTC to prohibit access without user permission.

Under new policies, users must go through a complicated and confusing opt-out process to keep private information from being shared with third party websites. Facebook, for example, has created a new system whereby “interests” listed by users on their personal profiles are automatically aggregated and shared as massive web pages. The system generates an enormous amount of marketing data that could be used for spam and potential scammers.

“Hundreds of millions of people use social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter every day,” said Schumer. “These sites have helped reconnect old friends, allow families from far away to stay in touch, and created new friendships; overall they provide a great new way to communicate. As these sites become more and more popular, however, it’s vitally important that safeguards are in place that provide users with control over their personal information to ensure they don’t receive unwanted solicitations. At the same time, social networking sites need to provide easy to understand disclosures to users on how information they submit is being shared.”

(Source: WPIX -11)