In the wake of the recession much has been made of a rise in the number of burglaries, as some people turn to crime to make ends meet. Indeed, the Home Office recently released a document jointly authored with the ABI (Association of British Insurers) offering advice on how people could best make their house secure (and reduce their buildings and contents insurance bills).

Another issue because of the recession has been a drop off in people renewing their insurance and an increase in insurance fraud, often by people deliberately under-insuring themselves in order to save money. This trend towards a lack of insurance coupled with rising crime figures makes for a very dangerous combination.

A report by home insurance company Legal and General* has highlighted other issues relevant to modern times that may have an impact on burglaries, and specifically the increased popularity of social networking sites.

The report looked specifically into entries made on the biggest social networking site of them all, Facebook. It found that nearly 40% of Facebook users indicate when they about to go away on holiday and precisely a third of all users state when they will be away for the weekend.

Whilst this might all appear a little bit Orwellian it is a serious problem. Small scale experiments have found that people are willing to answer random friend request on Facebook which allow individuals to see each others personal details. If, for example, you happen to have your address listed in your personal details you are putting yourself at unnecessary risk.

This is particularly the case if you live in any of Britain’s major cities where Google Streetview has taken pictures. This allows burglars to effectively ‘window shop’ and to make themselves familiar with the details of the front of your house, even including whether you have an intruder alarm in full sight or not.

Of course, all of this does not mean that we should delete our Facebook accounts or ask to be removed from Google Streetview. It is, however, a warning that people should be more careful with who they accept as friends, and even more relevantly, the amount of personal information that you include on your profile.

*Visit the Legal & General website for full details of their building and contents insurance