By Sarah Tawton
Many Britons risk having to claim on their home insurance because they could be putting their homes in danger of burglary by revealing personal information online, according to a study.
Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are used by seven out of 10 adults, but a third of those are risking the security of their home and possessions by giving out too many personal details, a study for The Co-operative Insurance has found.
The research shows that 36 per cent of users had used the sites to update others on their whereabouts, while 35% had counted down online to events such as holidays, potentially alerting criminals to when their homes would be empty.
A quarter of people had uploaded pictures of their home or car on to a social networking site, while 14 per cent had made their address available online.
Two-thirds of people had posted pictures of themselves on social networking sites, 60 per cent had disclosed their marital status and 42 per cent had shared their date of birth.
While such information may seem harmless, it could enable a fraudster to commit identity theft if it fell into the wrong hands, according to the group.
Half of people who use the sites said that they knew all of their "friends" but did not see them all regularly, and 21% admitted that although they knew most of them, some were friends of friends.
The group urged people to exercise caution when using social networking sites, only accepting friend requests from people they actually knew, while keeping the amount of personal information they made available to a minimum, and never revealing their date of birth or address.
