What's your mother's maiden name?
What's the name of the first school you went to?
What was your favourite subject at school?
What's your address? Birthday? Phone number?
– These are some important personal/private information of yours.

All this information is useful to people who want to steal your identity or break into your Personal Internet Banking. You wouldn't give this information away to a stranger in the street but if you use social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter or Myspace, you could be over-sharing personal data.

You must think carefully about the information you put into your profiles on sites like this. It is also a good idea that you check the privacy settings on each site that you use to make sure you only share personal information with people you trust.

Please also remember that you must take all reasonable precautions to keep your details safe and prevent unauthorised use of any cards and security details. If any information forms part of your security details, you should therefore make sure that you do not disclose it to anyone else – see terms and conditions that apply to your social site account(s) for more detail.

Avoid letting someone you don’t know have access to your computer or laptop – especially remotely (when you’re not face-to-face with them).