New research shows that the Irish are at the top of the list in Europe when it comes to accessing social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter.

A new survey shows that 68 percent of Irish people who use the Internet use social networking sites. These numbers are the fourth highest in Europe. The Irish are the third most likely to share photographs and videos online according to Eurobarometer.

At the top of the list was Hungary with 80 percent logging on to social network sites. They were closely followed by Latvia with 73 percent and Malta with 71 percent.

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The survey, carried out by the European Commission body, looked at results from 26,574 Europeans. The group focused on people’s attitudes toward online privacy and data protection in advance of the EU data protection rules.

Rather worryingly 82 percent of the Irish disclose personal information online, according to Journal.ie. However, 89 percent keep information about their bank accounts and salaries personal which well above the EU average of 75 percent. A high 93 percent do not share medical and health information in comparison to 74 percent of Europeans.

The Irish were found to be the fifth most informed when it came to the consequences of revealing information online. However 15 percent said they did not protect their identities online. About 57 percent gave the minimum amount of information to register for the online services and 74 percent said they would like to delete personal information when they chose.