Facebook says the redesigned security settings will let users decide what personal information the social network and third-party apps keep.

"It is and will remain Facebook's business model to collect data and make it accessible to people with the right profiles in exchange for money", he was cited as saying by Xinhua news agency.

This discussion on ethics comes in light of the recent exposure of data aggregation by data mining firm Cambridge Analytica.

This person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Facebook is facing unprecedented scrutiny following reports that a data mining firm used ill-gotten data from tens of millions of its users to try to influence elections.

The ministry raised five questions for Facebook, including whether the personal data of Indian voters and users has been compromised by Cambridge Analytica or any other downstream entity in any manner, and gave the networking giant a deadline of 7 April to send detailed response.

"The biggest difference is ease of access in settings, which fulfils Mark Zuckerberg's promise to make the privacy process and permissions more transparent to users", Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said. He noted that Facebook's presence in Washington is now about half the size of Google, a company that has had several privacy scandals over the past decade.

Facebook says users have "choices over their data", even if that hasn't been apparent.

She said Facebook has "some of the best talent in the industry" and that "their old interface was not a mistake, it was by design".

Facebook shares were trading at $153.03 (£108.72) on Wednesday and the company has declined to comment on how its latest changes may affect advertising revenue.

The question is whether the social network should be more proactive in warning people about the data they are sharing - perhaps sending an alert to all those people who are nearly certainly unaware that they are still uploading their phone contacts to the company.

Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has repeatedly apologized and bought full-page advertisements in USA and British newspapers promising to do more to restrict access to users' information.

It has now moved to scrap relationships with Acxiom and Experian, which had been collecting data from Facebook profiles to power a tool used by advertisers to target specific people.

The US Federal Trade Commission has opened an investigation into Facebook and attorneys representing 37 states are also pressing Zuckerberg to explain what happened.

He plans to testify before Congress, a source briefed on the matter said on Tuesday. While scanning the information Facebook had stored about his contacts, Dylan McKay discovered something distressing: Facebook also had about two years worth of phone call metadata from his Android phone, including names, phone numbers, and the length of each call made or received.