Internet sites 'useful to burglars'

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Users of sites such as Facebook and Twitter are putting themselves at risk of being burgled by revealing too much personal information, according to Legal & General.

Research found that 38% of users of social networking sites have posted updates about their holiday plans, while 33% have told people they are going away for the weekend.

Nearly a quarter of people have also discussed their travel plans 'wall-to-wall', meaning they have no control over who reads them.

Many people are also failing to take basic steps to keep personal information secure, with 17% of people saying they have seen users' residential addresses posted on pages that can be viewed by strangers.

One in 10 people have also included phone numbers and 5% have included their address in profiles that are visible to friends.

People are also showing a lack of discernment about who they accept as a friend, which enables people to access personal information users have written about themselves on the site.

Legal & General sent 100 friend or follow requests to random users of Facebook and Twitter and these were accepted by 13% and 92% of people respectively.

Eight out of 10 of people said they thought the sites were a good way to track down people they had met on holiday, while 75% thought they were a good way to meet friends of friends and 47% of people admitted they used the site to 'meet' new people based on their photographs.

The insurer warned that criminals could take advantage of people's desire to recruit friends to learn information about them which would help them establish when a property was likely to be empty and what possessions people had.