With the help of a new internet search engine, indiscreet updates posted by Facebook users for their small group of friends can now be accessible to all.

The new search engine Openbook scans all "public" updates left by members of Facebook, making them available to any person with the help of internet.

The software has been made to draw attention to Facebook's complex privacy settings that have been blamed for confusing users into revealing personal data more than they plan.

Searching Openbook for potentially compromising terms like "sex", "boss" or "drunk" throws up thousands of updates from the past few hours.

The subject searched by Openbook is already in the public sphere, but the privacy campaigners think that presenting details in a searchable format on a single site will make social network members think twice before sharing any data.

In May 2010, Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg declared that the site's privacy settings would be simplified after growing complaints that users were being duped into sharing private information.

He admitted that the site "missed the mark" on allowing its almost 500 million users to easily control how much of their data could be seen by the public.

Openbook is the brainchild of Will Moffat, Peter Burns and James Home, three website developers from San Francisco. (With Inputs from Agencies)