Members of Congress take fire on Facebook over privacy concerns

Advertisers hoping to access a bevy of Facebook information through a new initiative to make personal information held on the website available throughout the wider web may not get what they wish if some members of Congress have their say.

After Facebook recently announced that it will begin to provide tools to allow internet users to access the social media network's content and use it for their own purposes, three U.S. senators recently spoke out in an attempt to ensure privacy safeguards during the transition, according to Computerworld.

U.S. Senators Charles Schumer, Michael Bennet and Al Franken plan to hold a press conference and release a letter they wrote to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerurg urging the website to revisit its announcement at the f8 conference to allow third-party websites to access Facebook users information.

"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," says Schumer. "At the same time, social networking sites need to provide easy-to-understand disclosures to users on how information they submit is being shared."

While Facebook plans to send their users' information outwards, Twitter is letting advertisers in. Twitter announced that it will soon provide Promoted Tweets, specially placed advertisements that appear in search engine results.