Six out of 10 Facebook users ready to quit

Poll finds privacy changes a big concern

A poll has found that 60 per cent of Facebook users have considered quitting the service over privacy concerns.

The non-scientific poll of 1588 users, conducted by security firm Sophos, found that 30 per cent were "highly likely" to quit. Another 30 per cent said they would "possibly" quit.

Sixteen per cent of respondents said they "already have" stopped using the increasingly controversial social notworking service.

Facebook caused a geek backlash after its most recent meddling with user data settings. Users are now sharing more data publicly than ever before, whether they know it or not, and the site's privacy settings are pretty opaque.

It has also emerged that Google searches for the phrase "delete facebook account" are currently experiencing a huge spike, more than doubling in volume in the last week.

That all said, Facebook's user base is still growing. The company is expected to shortly announce its 500 millionth account.