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52-Percent of Adults Share Sensitive Data on Social Networks

by Terrence O'Brien on May 4, 2010 at 06:00 AM

This probably won't come as too much of a shock to many of you (especially regular Switched readers), but according to a recent survey from Consumer Reports, 52-percent of adults post potentially risky information about themselves on social networks.

The survey revealed that 42-percent posted their full birth date to Facebook and 51-percent post their e-mail address. Oddly these Facebook-specific numbers were higher than the averages across other social networks. In total, 56-percent of Facebook users were prone to posting sensitive information, compared with the 52-percent across all social networks.

Some of the behaviors listed as "risky" by Consumer Reports are the sort of thing we've covered before -- having weak passwords and telling the Internet when you're not home. Other behaviors seem more innocent, but can have potentially dire consequences. For instance posting your child's name in a caption on a photo could allow a stranger to pretend to know your child if he or she was spotted in a public setting, or your child's name might be the clue for a password or answer to a secret question that would grant access to your bank account to a hacker. Consumer Reports also suggests that users make themselves intimately familiar with Facebook and other social networks' privacy settings and spend time customizing them.

One particularly worrisome stat, especially in light of recent changes to the Facebook privacy and data retention policies, is that 35-percent of users "haven't given much thought to the security of apps." The new features raise a lot of concerns, particularly about applications that could turn into a treasure trove of user data for hackers. Any serious attempt to protect your data and identity requires being aware of your privacy and application settings on Facebook and erring on the side of caution when it comes to deciding what to share. [From: Consumer Reports]

Tags: consumer reports, ConsumerReports, facebook, hackers, privacy, security, socialnetworking, study, top, web

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