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Facebook has started collecting information about the other websites users visit, the links they click on and their searches.

The social media site already harvests details people share on their profiles, including where they went to school, their interests and where they live.

But under a new privacy policy – to which anyone who has signed into Facebook since Friday has been opted in automatically – it can track activity outside the website, including online searches and some of the details users share with retailers.

Facebook has started collecting information about the other websites users visit, the links they click on and their searches. It said that the changes help Facebook 'to better serve more relevant advertising to you'

A Facebook spokesman said: 'It takes into account pages and places visited on Facebook, alongside browsing on the internet at large.'

She added that the changes help Facebook 'to better serve more relevant advertising to you.'  

The site uses cookies – small files which it places on your web browser or device – to collect information which can then be transmitted back to Facebook.

The new terms were introduced as part of a wider update to Facebook's privacy policy, which - the social network claimed - was designed to make the rules easier to understand.

However, most users remain unaware of the radical change they have signed up for.

The move has been condemned by privacy campaigners and has reignited fears over the threat the social network poses to people's privacy online, and the transparency with which it behaves.

Labour MP Helen Goodman said it is 'absolutely typical of Facebook' to prioritise profits over the interests of its users.

She added: 'What this does is clearly put their financial interests ahead of the interests of their informed consumers.

'They're taking a significant step forward in terms of the amount of information they collect. It makes me feel very uneasy.'

Facebook's profits more than doubled to $1.1bn (£727m) in the last quarter as advertising revenues soared.

John Hemming, Liberal Democrat MP, said that Facebook owed it to its members to be more transparent about the way it uses their data.

The site uses cookies – small files which it places on your web browser or device – to collect information which can then be transmitted back to Facebook. The move has been condemned by privacy campaigners

'If Facebook has changed what it is doing, it should make that clearer to the people that use it,' he said. 'I have used Facebook since Friday and they haven't made it clear to me.'

Renate Samson, chief executive of privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch, added: 'This privacy change was not clearly announced to users of Facebook.

'It is vital that companies seek informed consent from their users before making changes to privacy settings and enable the user to choose whether to accept the service or not.

'The ability to opt out should be straight forward and not an arduous round the houses task.'

The social network claimed that it has made its privacy policy much clearer than in the past, by condensing 12 pages of legal terminology down to four.

It also claims it has told users how they can limit the amount of information they share, by adjusting their privacy settings or electing not to see certain kinds of adverts.

A spokesman said there is 'a powerful ad preferences tool…accessible from every ad on Facebook,' explaining why that advert was shown in the first place, and offering users the chance to say when they are not interested in a particular kind of service.

Last year, is also harnessing the information to sell advertising space on behalf of other websites, so that advertisers effectively 'follow' users around the internet.

The scheme means, for example, that a woman who announces her engagement on Facebook might find herself bombarded with adverts for wedding dresses on Amazon, or that someone who has just bought a property is prompted to buy home furnishings.