It’s reported today that details of the private life of Sir John Sawers and his family have been removed from Facebook at the request of the British Government.

Sir John Sawers takes up the post of head of MI6 in November, and is currently the UK’s ambassador to the United Nations.

His wife had put their family details, including their children, holiday photographs, the location of their flat etc on Facebook, and had not imposed any privacy retrictions on her account. All the details were openly available to 200 million users in the London network.

MP Patrick Mercer, counter-terrorism sub-committee chairman, said his security could have been compromised.

“A great deal of tax payers’ money has been spent over the past several decades making sure he and his family are protected from security compromises. Well, it doesn’t seem to be very relevant anymore, does it.”

He added: “It’s distressing and worrying therefore that these sorts of details should be appearing in the public domain. I would have hoped these sort of mistakes would not have been made by people like that.”

All users of Facebook have privacy options which can effectively protect them from prying eyes or keep personal details hidden. Lady Sawers obviously didn’t use these and she isn’t alone. There are many millions of Facebook users who are open to having their privacy compromised or their identity stolen. Facebook accounts are being hacked daily. It’s frightening to see the amount of personal information freely available, not only on Facebook but on many other social networks, because users don’t use the privacy options available.

But why put this sensitive information on there in the first place? Do your ‘Friends’ really need to have access to your personal details 24/7? If they want to phone you they can ask for your number by email or direct message. Similarly if they need your address to get to the party they can ask for it. Is your date of birth really that important to them? Do they really need to know where your children go to school?

The great book “The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy” has “Don’t Panic” as it’s opening words. Perhaps Facebook should present “Be Careful What You Tell Us” to all new users.