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Brits 'being lapse with online privacy'

Brits need to ensure that online privacy is at the forefront of their minds, as new research shows they are putting a large amount of personal data on social networking sites.

Data from Tiscali UK found that 68 per cent of users are putting photos on the websites.

Other private data commonly being put on the sites includes people's date of birth (49 per cent), email addresses (40 per cent) and job details (20 per cent).

Despite this common practice to put personal data on social networking sites, some 97 per cent of respondents said they would worry if some of their details or confidential information was available on the internet.

Neal McLeave, managing director of Tiscali's media services, said the research should be a "warning to people who are not cautious about what they share".

He added: "They are sharing information they wouldn't want to see elsewhere on the internet."

Stefan Tanase, security researcher at Kaspersky Lab, recently claimed the amount of malware programs on social networking sites was unexpectedly high during June.

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