Recently, new data from security solutions company Webroot revealed some interesting insights into the thoughts and behaviors of users on social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Twitter, and others. According to their survey, a majority of users (78%) reported concerns about their social network profiles’ privacy, but when asked about specific behaviors it was apparent that “concern” didn’t translate into action. In fact, it didn’t even seem to translate into a basic understanding of how to use the privacy tools already in place on the networks today.

Those numbers are based on the realities of the situation as tracked by Webroot, but when asked directly about their profile’s publicity, a lot of respondents didn’t even know the answer. A whopping 59% of the 1100 surveyed said they weren’t sure who could see their profile.

To top it off, 32% of users shared at least three pieces of identifiable information on their profile pages and 28% accepted friend requests from complete strangers. These sorts of behaviors show a distinct lack of understanding about the risks of sharing personal information with those you don’t know. It also certainly shows that being concerned about privacy hasn’t been enough of an incentive for users to take any action to change their behavior.

Webroot also found that younger social networking users took more risks than any other demographic. Those users ages 18 to 29 tended to use the same password across multiple sites (51% versus 36% overall), accepted friend requests from strangers (40% versus 28% overall), and shared more personal information online. In this age group, 67% shared their birthday (vs. 52% overall), 62% shared their home town (vs. 50% overall), and 45% shared their employer (vs. 35% overall). Read more at www.readwriteweb.com