PrivacyGuard Survey Identifies Consumer Feelings Toward And Activities On Social Media Sites

STAMFORD, Conn., April 3, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- A recent survey commissioned by PrivacyGuard, a leading provider of credit reporting, credit score, and identity theft protection services, and performed by Survey Sampling International (SSI), looked at a wide variety of consumer behaviors on, and feelings toward, social media sites. Interestingly, while a majority of consumers acknowledged having trust issues with the companies running social media sites, these issues don't appear to have stopped consumers from creating accounts and logging on.

• While 64% of consumers have trust issues with social media companies, 77% of those surveyed admitted having accounts on these types of sites (with 'Facebook' being the representative site used for the survey question).
• According to the survey results, while consumer trust had no impact in participating on Facebook, a person's age tended to be the most significant predictor of whether or not someone had a Facebook account.

The survey also identified a large number of consumers who estimated that a majority of their Facebook "friends" were actually strangers.

• Approximately 20% of consumers who had Facebook accounts estimated they knew less than half of their Facebook "friends".
• Men were twice as likely to admit knowing less than half their "friends" than women were.

Identity thieves can typically strike with a limited amount of information. For example, someone's home address, birthday, phone number and e-mail address can, in many cases be enough for thieves to victimize a consumer. Much of this same information is also requested by social networks as people build their individual profiles.

"There are a multitude of reasons why consumers should show trepidation when it comes to sharing their personal information on sites like Facebook, and the survey points to a large number doing just that," said Vin Torcasio, Director of Product for PrivacyGuard. "However, because thieves can strike with just a bit of personal information, it's important to keep an eye on who we allow our 'friends' to be."

The online survey, performed by Survey Sampling International (SSI), was based on a panel of 1,000 respondents throughout the United States.

For more information, visit www.privacyguard.com or follow us on Twitter @PrivacyGuard.

About PrivacyGuard

PrivacyGuard is a comprehensive credit reporting, credit score, credit monitoring and identity theft protection service that helps you maintain control over your most critical personal and financial information. Combining state-of-the-art credit protection and reporting with superior customer service, PrivacyGuard offers the comprehensive tools and support needed to help secure your life. A product of the Affinion Security Center, PrivacyGuard has served millions of consumers for over 23 years. For more information on PrivacyGuard and its industry-leading services, please visit privacyguard.com.

SOURCE PrivacyGuard