Users of the social networking major, Facebook have once again raised privacy concerns about publicly available information on the site. The new Facebook feature called ‘Places’ allowing users to share their location with their contacts has sparked up new privacy concerns about.

The feature called Places will integrate with other location tools and will allow users to find their friends by disclosing their location on the social networking sites. Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg expressed that ‘Places’ works with existing location-aware tools offered by Foursquare along with Gowalla Inc.

Experts say that introducing a location based feature was the obvious step for the site as it aims to become the most popular hub of social activity. This is in line with the company strategy to add component and generate more revenues as it provides free service to more than half a billion active users on the site. One in four Facebook users accesses the site from mobile devices and thus could be target for the feature. Marketers could place ads when the customer is near the shops. Facebook will also make ‘places’ compatible with Yelp Inc and make it available on Apple devices.

Facebook officials tried to defend the feature before its launch saying that it will come with comprehensive privacy controls. Users are concerned as the location of a friend can be identified and also tagged until the user changes settings. A user can use a internet enabled handheld device and ‘check-in’ in the service and record that another friend is at that place as well irrespective of the fact if the friend is actually present or not.

In response Ana Yang, a Facebook Places product marketing manager says, "If you have a friend that is tagging you in illicit places, you can tell them to stop, or you can de-friend that person, or block them entirely."

The company can generate good amount of ad revenues from the feature by allowing marketers to target customers on the basis of their location. Zuckerberg has already indicated that Facebook will add ad component to ‘places’.

Facebook earlier had to simplify its privacy setting after too much publicly available data sparked a huge controversy and many users threatened to quit. Facebook officials say that they have consulted privacy and safety groups before launching the feature this week.