Facebook Inc.'s recent introduction of "Graph Search" has raised questions among privacy advocates about the new search tool's ability to find information about Facebook users.

The social networking service in a Jan. 15 statement announced the release of a beta version of Graph Search, a new tool that allows users to find the "people, photos, places and interests" that are most relevant to them. For example, the tool permits a user to search for "music my friends like" or "people who like tennis and live nearby," the company said.

"We've built Graph Search from the start with privacy in mind, and it respects the privacy and audience of each piece of content on Facebook," the company said. "It makes finding new things much easier, but you can only see what you could already view elsewhere on Facebook."

But some privacy advocates say Graph Search makes user information more accessible.

"Facebook emphasized that Graph Search respects existing privacy settings and does not expose any new information about users to anyone," Chris Conley, a technology and civil liberties fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, said in a Jan. 15 blog post. "However, controlling your personal data means controlling not only who can see your information but how it can be found and what can be done with it." Conley added that Graph Search may allow advertisers to more easily find users whose public data fit a certain profile.

Electronic Frontier Foundation Activist Adi Kamdar raised similar concerns in a Jan. 18 blog post: "Facebook's Graph Search presents the problem of discoverability. One can have a good balance of privacy and openness if information is available, but not easily discoverable. . . . All of a sudden, what people once thought was shared only to their Facebook audience-whether friends, friends of friends, or member[s] of the public with a specific reason to look you up-is now readily available via Graph Search."

Neither the Federal Trade Commission nor data protection authorities in other countries have publicly expressed concern with Facebook's new tool. However, such authorities have not been afraid to take the company to task when it has tweaked with tools and settings that affect user privacy.

For example, the FTC announced in November 2011 that the company had agreed to settle claims that Facebook allowed third parties to obtain sensitive user data without the users' prior consent or knowledge. The consent agreement, which the FTC finalized in July 2012, requires Facebook to obtain the express consent of users before sharing any information beyond what users have authorized.

Whether the FTC or other data protection authorities will investigate Graph Search for its adherence to Facebook's settlement pacts, the company's own policies, and consumer protection laws remains to be seen.

Copyright 2012, The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.