Survey showed that social networking sites users are easy-targets for burglars as they constantly expose their personal details and information in public.

With currently 8.5 million people registered on Facebook and 2.4 million on Twitter Social Networking Sites are fast becoming a dominating factor in many individual’s lives.

A Leading UK based insurance company surveyed 2,092 social networking site users and came up with some startling and worrying figures.  They found that 13% of Facebook users were happy to add an unknown individual to their list of “friends”, whereas this figure rises to a massive 92% for Twitter users.

The report also demonstrated that 41% of Facebook users post personal details such as date of birth, work place and home address on their profile page. Even more concerning, 38% were happy to give full details of holiday plans including their home address and holiday dates, virtually inviting so called “friends” to pay their property a visit whilst unprotected. This phenomenon is particularly prevalent within the 16-24 age range with a staggering 64% of users sharing personal information on a regular basis.

In Michael Fraser’s report “The Digital Criminal” social networking sites were described as “internet shopping for burglars” and with insurers now monitoring the correlation between these sites and burglary rates the result could be an increase in Home Insurance premiums.