Following extensive debate about privacy for social networking Web site users, Facebook (News - Alert) announced that it will let users share profile information and other personal information publicly on the Web.

 

This capability, InformationWeek said in a Friday report, is being introduced as a new feature called Facebook Connect — making it possible for developers to build applications that connect to Facebook profile information from other Web sites.

 

Rival social networking Web site, MySpace (News - Alert).com announced a similar initiative earlier last week, InformationWeek said. MySpace introduced a central privacy control panel on the site that lets users choose the information they want to share and the sites they want to share it with. At first, MySpace.com users will only be able to share basic profile information: photos, videos, friend lists.

 

Similarly, Facebook Connect enables developers to build applications that connect to Facebook data, with control over what information is shared staying in the hands of users. In fact, InformationWeek said, uses that want to share information will be required to sign an agreement.

 

The article quoted Facebook as saying it believes that this type of connectivity is about more than just porting data over the Web; “It's about giving users the ability to take their identity and friends with them around the Web, while being able to trust that their information is always up to date and always protected by their privacy settings.”

 

Facebook Connect, InformationWeek said, enables users to bring “real identity” information with them wherever they go on the Web — including photos, names, friend lists, events and groups. The new feature also lets Facebook users port their privacy settings to other locations.