Legal & General Alert Customers to the Need for Online Security

- Report Finds That Users of Social Networking Sites are More at Risk of Burglary Than Ever Before

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Jan 13, 2011, 01:45 ET

TADWORTH, England, Jan. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Research carried out by Legal & General, a provider of home insurance, has uncovered that users of social networking sites are putting themselves at risk of burglary more than ever and are today reminding its customers of the need to be careful with personal data online.

Legal & General, with the help of Michael Fraser, created the latest Digital Criminal Report which highlights that more and more people are joining location-based social networking sites. This, combined with the availability of private residential addresses for sale on the internet, is putting users of sites such as Facebook and FourSquare at more risk of burglary, and increases the importance of buying home contents insurance to protect their belongings.

Last year, Facebook launched its 'Facebook Places' location service, which allows people to 'check in' to their current location and share their whereabouts with friends or followers. Burglars are then able to use this information to establish a list of potential targets.

The report revealed that 40% of people agree that there is a risk with location-based services as it informs would-be burglars of their whereabouts, but this hasn't discouraged people from joining social networking sites that host the service.

The report also shows that anyone can purchase access to private address information via 192.com – even if the resident is ex-directory, so long as the resident is on the edited electoral roll.

In response to these findings Legal & General offers these useful tips for protecting yourself online: