Half of Americans who use social networking sites have seen people share to much personal information, yet more than a quarter (28%) rarely think about what could happened if they share too much personal information online, according a new survey from Lawyers.com.
Nearly half (44%) of Americans are concerned that the personal information they share online is being used against them, and 21 percent who use social networking sites believe that their personal information has been accessed by people who take advantage of weak privacy settings.
"The Lawyers.com Social Networking Survey reveals a clear disconnect between the privacy concerns of users and their actual behaviors and disclosures on social networking sites," said Carol Eversen, vice president of Marketing at LexisNexis.
"Nearly every week we hear about the negative consequences resulting from inappropriate disclosures and uses of personal information on social networking sites, however the data suggests that Americans are not taking the necessary steps to protect themselves."
The majority of Americans who use social networking sites admit that they have posted their first and last name (69 percent), photos of themselves (67 percent), or an email address (51 percent) on a social networking site.
Three-quarters of Americans (76 percent) worry that the privacy settings on social networking sites are not adequately protecting their personal information and 43 percent admit they just click “agree” without reading terms and conditions on social sites.
Forty percent of Americans indicated it’s all right for managers to monitor their employees’ personal tweets and Facebook pages, and the same percentage believe they could lose their job for information they’ve posted on a social networking site. Yet, more than half of Americans (53 percent) agree that inappropriate comments or posts on social networking sites should not affect someone’s employment.