As millions of Americans flock to theaters to see “The Social Network,” millions more are exposing their identities and potentially critical financial information on popular social networking sites. According to a new survey conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of ID Analytics, more than 24 million Americans age 18 or older leave their social network profiles mostly public. Millions more expose key pieces of identity information including date of birth, birthplace, and even current and previous addresses. Nearly 70 million U.S. adults on social networking sites share their birthplace on their profiles. Birthplace is one of the most common “security questions” asked by financial institutions to verify someone’s identity. Other highlights of the 2010 Social Network Fraud Survey include:
· Nearly 20 million Americans reveal their pets’ names on their social networks, another common security question asked to verify identities.
· 18-34 year-olds are most likely to reveal personal information on social networking sites.
· Overall men and women on social networking sites tend to share similar information about themselves. However, men are much more likely to share their current address than women. Men are also almost twice as likely to share photos of their car, while women are almost twice as likely to share pet names.
