Though the board is new, the companies aren't strangers. "These are several organizations with which we've worked in the past, and this is a way to formalize the relationship and create a real and direct feedback channel," said Nicky Jackson Colaco, public policy spokesperson for Facebook.

A Bad November

Social-networking sites are, of course, places where stalkers, scammers, spammers and other undesirables seek to meet potential victims. Facebook, Twitter and other social-networking sites need to both combat these threats and to create a high enough profile doing so that they reassure their users and discourage miscreants.

There remains a lot of work to do. In mid-November, Facebook was the victim of an attack in which a group called Control Your Info took administrative control of numerous Facebook pages and repeated at each a message suggesting that they could have posted malicious messages and done more damage.

It's important to note that Control Your Info didn't use technology such as viruses or worms to take over Facebook networks. This suggests that better management controls and policies could have precluded the attack -- which is precisely the message the group was trying to convey.

Listening to Users

Amanda Lenhart, a senior research specialist for the Pew Internet & American Life Project, gives social-networking sites, including Facebook, credit for paying attention to various security and privacy issues. The advisory board may be another avenue through which these controls can be improved.

"Certainly Facebook has very extensive privacy controls," she said. "Some comments from users suggest that they almost are too complicated. Their response was to make them less complicated. They also are removing one hole in their security, which was that the regional networks -- which can be anything from Washington, D.C., to India -- could contain millions of people. So when you make things available to the total network , it had the effect of making everything available [on a extremely wide basis]. They are in the process of eliminating these networks."

In a blog posting, Facebook Director of European Public Policy Richard Allan said more organizations may be added to the board. He said the company is partnering with MTV and has worked with the BBC on security- and privacy-based campaigns. He added that the company recently was lauded by the New York attorney general for its help in finding and disabling sex offenders' Facebook accounts.