Introducing Facebook Social

DAILY DOT COM - It took an act of Congress, but Netflix subscriber can now link their accounts to Facebook.

The video streaming service launched its first Facebook app on Wednesday, March 13 in a blog post .  So if you have a Facebook account, all of your friends will now be able to keep up with what you're watching.

The long awaited social feature was finally added after Congress passed a bill that dropped restrictions in the Video Privacy Protection Act.  The 1988 law had banned the disclosure of video rental records without a customer's written consent.  The California-based company persuaded Congress to revise the law after several years of lobbying.

Users can choose which content to share on Netflix, as well as whether they want to post their TV and movie choices on to their Facebook profiles.

On Netflix's site, users will able to see which shows their Facebook friends have watched and rated highly.  On Facebook, Netflix customers can share their viewing history on their News Feed, or opt out of the title sharing mode completely.

While there's an upside to the news, some tech guru's are asking whether the new sharing feature is necessary….asking…“do you really want your friends knowing what you're watching?”  After all, sometimes we like to indulge in things that we wouldn't necessarily tell the world about.

Chances are you're not the only one using your Netflix account either.  Many subscribers share their Netflix accounts with their entire family.  As Techcrunch's Sarah Perez writes, anybody who connected to her via Facebook and Netflix is going to see a lot of Dora the Explorer, Tinker Bell and Sesame Street, because that's what her daughter likes to watch.

Netflix says all users in the U.S. will have access to the social options by the end of the week.